Demarcation and Legalisation of the Borders of the Ukrainian SSR with its Neighbours – the Border with the Moldavian SSR (2 August 1940 – 1991)

This article is part of a series dedicated to the establishment of the borders of the Ukrainian SSR (and its legal continuation under the Union Constitution of 5 December 1936 of the Ukrainian SSR) with the neighbouring Soviet republics – the RSFSR, the Belorussian SSR (BSSR) and the Moldavian ASSR (Moldavian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic; since 1936 – the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) and the latter's legal successor – the Moldavian SSR. After Royal Romania was forced to accept the Soviet ultimatum on 28 June 1940 on the immediate resolution of the Bessarabian issue, the occupied (1918–1940) lands “returned” to the successor of the Russian Empire – the USSR. At the same time, some of these lands became part of the Ukrainian SSR (Northern Bukovyna, Akkerman region (later incorporated into Odesa region); while others were “reunited” with the Moldavian ASSR in a new quasi-state formation – the Moldavian SSR. It is significant that when establishing the inter-republican borders, no one asked the opinion of the local multinational population (Moldovans, Ukrainians, Jews, Gagauzes, Bulgarians, German and Polish colonists, etc.), and the decisive word remained with Moscow. The author points out that the current Ukrainian-Moldovian border generally corresponds to the ethnographic demarcation, Kyiv and Chisinau adhere to the principle of inviolability of European borders and support the territorial integrity of both independent states, including, respectively, the so-called Transnistrian Moldovan Republic on the left bank of the Dniester, and Crimea, and other Ukrainian lands that the Russian Federation is trying to annex in violation of international law. This does not exclude the possibility of a mutually agreed exchange of territories for reasons of economic expediency.