During the Russian Revolution, Akkerman was alternatively under the control of the Ukrainian People's Republic and troops loyal to the government of Soviet Russia. Furthermore, the city and the surrounding district were also claimed by the Moldovan Democratic Republic, which however had no means to enforce such claims on the ground. The city was occupied by the Romanian Army on 9 March 1918, after heavy fighting with local troops led by the Bolsheviks. Formal integration followed later that month, when an assembly of the Moldovan Democratic Republic proclaimed the whole of Bessarabia united with Romania. In the interwar period, projects aimed to expand the city and the port were reviewed. Romania ceded the city to the Soviet Union on 28 June 1940 following the 1940 Soviet Ultimatum, but regained it on 28 July 1941 during the invasion of the USSR by the Axis forces in the course of the Second World War and had it within its boundaries until 22 August 1944 when the Red Army occupied the city once again. The Soviets partitioned Bessarabia, and its southern flanks (including Bilhorod) became part of the Ukrainian SSR, and after 1991, modern Ukraine.