In the elections of November 1917, opponents of the UNR in Hotin County had chosen Nicolae Bosie-Codreanu, Nicolae Cernăuțeanu, and Constantin Iurcu as their delegates to the Bessarabian people's assembly, or "Sfatul Țării". In December, Ukrainian soldiers from the 10th Army Corps expressed a contrary wish, declaring that Khotyn needed to be included in the UNR. A UNR diplomat, Otto Eichelmann, argued that there were no Hotin representatives on show in March 1918, when this legislature voted in favor of union with Romania; nevertheless, "Sfatul" resolutions made specific reference to unified Bessarabia as extending "from Hotin to Ismail". Following the Eleven Days' War against Soviet Russia, the Central Powers, including Austria, could impose these borders on their defeated adversaries. The Romanian presence in Bessarabia, which coincided with the start of a working alliance between the UNR and the Central Powers, stood as a "clue that [Romanians] too are out of the war with the Central Powers." Trilateral peace negotiations began in February, when Austria announced Romanian diplomats that Bessarabia question was largely irrelevant to the Central Powers: "the [Bessarabian] question is to be solved directly between Romania, which occupies it militarily, and the Ukrainian and Moldavian republics".