WESTERN REGION….

The presidents of Ukraine and Moldova signed a treaty demarcating their border in Southern and Northern Bessarabia and the province of Bukovina. These regions in the past 200 years have been under Turkish, Russian, Moldovan, Romanian and Soviet-Ukrainian rule, and in the case of Bukovina Austrian as well. The population includes all these ethnic groups, plus Bulgarians, Gagauz and others. Russia is not a party to this treaty, and the issue of Transdniester, a region in Moldova occupied by Russian troops and with a 25 percent Russian population, remains unresolved.