Budjak Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast ( province ) of Ukraine . Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia . The region is bordered in the north and west by Moldova , in the south by Romania and in the east by the Black Sea . Name and geography . Historically , Budjak was a smaller , southeastern steppe region of Moldavia . Bordered by the northern Trajan ' s Wall at its north end , by the Danube river and Black Sea to its south , by Tigheci Hills ( just east of the Prut River ) to the west , and Dniester river to the east , it was known as " historic Bessarabia " until 1812 , when this name was given to the larger region situated between the two rivers , including Budjak . As used in Middle Ages , the term might ( if referred to the geographical area ) or might not ( if referred to the area predominated by Nogai Tatars ) include Cetatea Albă , Chilia and Izmail counties . After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in 1940 , its southern part that was included in the Ukrainian SSR and did not form Moldavian SSR , became known as Budjak , thus being slightly smaller than the historical term . The name Budjak itself was given to the area during Ottoman rule ( 1484 – 1812 ) and derives from the Turkish word " bucak " , meaning " borderland " or " corner " , referring roughly to the land between what was then Akkerman ( now Bilhorod - Dnistrovs ' kyi ) , Bender and Ismail . After 1812 , the term Bessarabia came to apply to all of Moldavia east of the Prut River . Consequently , Budjak is sometimes referred to as " Southern Bessarabia " . Besides Southern Bessarabia , other descriptive terms that have been applied to the region include " Bulgarian Bessarabia " ( , translit . " Bolhars ' ka Bessarabiia " ) , " Akkermanshchyna " ( ) , and " Western Odessa Oblast " ( , translit . " Zakhidna Odeshchyna " ) . The area has been termed variously in the English language , including Budjak , Budzhak , Bujak , Buchak , and even Budziac Tartary . In the Ukrainian , Bulgarian , and Russian languages , the area is referred to as " Budzhak " ( Cyrillic : Буджак , pronounced ) , in the Polish it is " Budziak " , in the Romanian it is " Bugeac " , while in Turkish it is " Bucak " . History . Early history . In Classical antiquity , Budjak was inhabited by Tyragetae , Bastarnae , Scythians and Roxolani . In 6th century BC Ancient Greek colonists established a colony at the mouths of Dnister river , Tyras . Around 2nd century BC , also a Celt tribe settled at Aliobrix ( present day Cartal / Orlovka ) . The Romans acquired the area in the 1st century AD , rebuilt and encamped Tyras and Aliobrix . As with the rest of the port cities around the Black Sea , the local population absorbed a mixture of Greek and Roman cultures , with Greek being mainly the language of trade , and Latin the language of politics . After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 , the area was included in the East Roman Empire . From 1st century AD , and until the invasion of Avars in 558 , the Romans had established cities ( " poleis " ) , military camps and some stations for the veterans and for the colons ( " apoikion " ) sent by the emperors . The area lay along the predominant route for migratory peoples , as it was the westernmost portion of the Euro - Asian steppe . Going westward , only the banks of the Dniester and Danube rivers were less forested ( comparatively to the surrounding areas , which nowadays form Moldova , Romania and Bulgaria ) , therefore providing a natural route for herdsmen all the way from Mongolia to the Pannonian plains ( today ' s Hungary ) . The region , therefore , passed as a temporary settling ground for Huns under the leader Uldin ( 387 ) , Eurasian Avars ( 558 – 567 ) , Slavs ( end of 6th century ) , Bulgars under the leader Asparuh ( 679 ) , Hungarians or Magyars ( 9th century ) , Pechenegs ( 11th century , and again 12th century ) , Cumans ( 12th century ) and others . Although the Byzantines held nominal suzerainty of the region ( at least of the sea shore ) until the 14th century , they had little or no sway over the land in the interior . In the early Middle Ages a Tigheci " Republic " was formed by several villages occupying the nearby Tigheci hills , in order to offer more security for themselves , while the steppe area between that and the seashore , unsuited for agriculture due to lack of water and frequently invaded by Eastern populations , remained void of permanent settlements . From the 9th to the 12th centuries , the region was under the authority of the First Bulgarian Empire , Pechenegs , and later of Cumans , who irregularly collected tribute from the indigenous villagers . Moldavian and Ottoman rule . After the Mongol invasion of 1241 , the rebuilt coastal cities of Budjak ( Maurocastron and Licostomo ) , came under the domination of Genoese traders . The interior however remained under the direct Mongol rule of the Golden Horde . After the 1330s , Wallachia ' s princes of the House of Basarab extended they authority over part of the territory , who came to be called Bessarabia . The region remained under Wallachian influence until the early 14th century , during the reign of Mircea the Elder , when the area was integrated into Moldavia by prince Alexander the Kind in still not fully clarified circumstances . Nogai Tatars , who had settled herds in the region after the 1240s , inhabited the steppe , while Romanians inhabited the surrounding hills and the port cities . In 1484 Stephen the Great of Moldavia was forced to surrender the two main fortresses of Chilia ( Kiliya ) and Cetatea Albă ( Bilhorod - Dnistrovs ' kyi ) to the Ottoman Empire , the last Black Sea ports to fall into Ottoman hands . In 1538 the Ottomans forced prince Petru Rares of Moldavia to give up the fortress - city Tighina as well . Under the Ottomans , Tighina was renamed Bender , while Chilia lost importance due to the construction of the Ismail fortress at the location of the Moldavian village Smil . Despite returning from Muslim to Orthodox Christian sovereignty , the latter names were retained by the Russian Empire . Under Ottoman rule , the three major cities each were the center of a sanjak , and were together officially part of Silistra ( or Özi ) Eyalet although Bender was north of Trajan ' s Wall and outside of the steppe region . The Nogai Tatar - inhabited steppe , which then acquired the name Budjak , served as a buffer area between these sanjaks and the Principality of Moldavia . Although it was a tributary of the Ottoman Empire , Moldavia was independent in its internal affairs until the start of the Russo - Turkish Wars forced the Ottomans to ensure that the Romanian princes did not switch sides too often . Modern history . During the Napoleonic Era , Budjak was overrun by Russia in the course of the Russo - Turkish War of 1806 – 1812 . The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest transferred the territories of Moldavia and Ottoman Empire east of the Prut River , including Budjak , to Russian control . With the Russian annexation , the name Bessarabia began to be applied not only to the original southern region , but to the entire eastern half of historical Moldavia acquired by the Russian Empire , while Budjak was applied to southern Bessarabia , mainly to the steppe . With Russia ' s 1856 defeat in the Crimean War , a part of southern Bessarabia including a part of Budjak ( Reni , Ismail , Bolgrad , Kilia ) was ceded by the Russian Empire back to the Principality of Moldavia , which soon united with Wallachia to form the United Principalities ( personal union : 1859 ; full union : 1862 ) . Following Russo - Turkish War of 1877 – 78 , the Treaty of San Stefano and the Treaty of Berlin recognized the full independence of the new Kingdom of Romania ( the principalities that formed it had already been " de facto " independent for half a century ) , but transferred the territories subject to the 1856 re - configuration again to the Russian Empire . After World War I , Budjak , which was part of the Russian province of Bessarabia that voted to join Romania , was administered as parts of Tighina , Ismail and Cetatea Albă counties ( judeţ e ) . As the region was inhabited by non - Romanian majorities , it witnessed several revolts against the central authorities , such as the Bender Uprising of 1919 and the Tatarbunary Uprising of 1924 . In 1939 , the secret appendix to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact assigned Bessarabia to the Soviet Union ’ s sphere of influence and , in June 1940 , the Soviets issued an ultimatum demanding the transfer of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina . King Carol II of Romania acquiesced and the area was annexed . Central and northern Bessarabia formed the center of the new Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic but part of the south , now known as Budjak , was apportioned to the Ukrainian SSR . The commission that decided the administrative border between the Ukrainian SSR and Moldavian SSR inside the Soviet Union was chaired by Nikita Khrushchev , the then leader of the Ukrainian SSR and the future USSR leader who would add Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR . On 7 August 1940 the Soviets formed Akkerman Oblast , which was administratively subdivided into 13 raion s . The city of Akkerman ( Bilhorod - Dnistrovskyi ) was the center of the oblast . Four months later , on 7 December 1940 the oblast was renamed Izmail Oblast , and the oblast center was moved to the city of Izmail . Upon Nazi Germany ’ s June 1941 declaration of war on the Soviet Union , Romania sided with the Axis Powers and retook the territories previously annexed by the Soviet Union , including Budjak , but then also continued the war into proper Soviet territory . The area was regained by the Soviets in 1944 and , despite a royal coup by Michael I of Romania that led to Romania joining the Allies in August 1944 , was annexed by the Soviets in the 1940 political configuration . During the administrative reform of Ukrainian SSR , on 15 February 1954 , Izmail Oblast was liquidated , and all raions of the oblast were included into Odessa Oblast . By territory , Odessa oblast is now the largest oblast in Ukraine . With the fall of the Soviet Union , each of the fifteen republics that formally had the right to secede became independent , with boundaries preserved as were inside Soviet Union , since the same Soviet Constitution stipulated that they could not be changed without the mutual consent of both republics , and no discussions between the two upon such an issue were ever held . Budjak is now a part of independent Ukraine . It is connected to the rest of Odessa oblast by two bridges . The more northerly of the two connections passes for 7 . 4 km through the territory of Moldova , but is Ukrainian - controlled by an agreement between the two countries . Subdivisions . Raions ( Districts ) . The historical territory of Budjak is now subdivided into the administrative districts ( " raion s " ) of Ukraine ' s Odessa Oblast , with " raion " centers being : Total population of the 9 districts ( raions ) , less that of the two cities , according to the Ukrainian 2001 Census , is 481 , 000 people . Cities . The total population of the two cities , according to the same source , is 136 , 200 people . Ethnic groups and demographics . The main ethnic groups in Budjak today are Ukrainians , Bulgarians , Russians , and Moldovans . The region was inhabited by Moldovans ( Romanians / Vlachs ) and Nogai Tatars through the Middle Ages , but became a home to several other ethnicities and religious groups in the 19th century when it was part of the Russian Empire . The examples are Bessarabian Bulgarians , Bessarabian Germans , Gagauzians and Lipovan Russians who settled in compact areas . Muslim , Turkic - speaking Nogai Tatars inhabited Ottoman - dominated Budjak until the start of the 19th century , but were forced to abandon the region once the Russian Empire got control over the territory . They resettled in the Caucasus , Dobruja ( both in the Romania n and Bulgarian parts ) or in modern Turkey . Budjak was also home to a number of ethnic Germans known as Bessarabian Germans , originally from Württemberg and Prussia , who settled the region in the early 19th century , after it became part of the Russian Empire . A large number of them cultivated the Budjak steppes , known also as " Kronsland " ( see also map ) . They were deported in the Nazi - Soviet population transfers following the Soviet takeover of Bessarabia in 1940 . These " Germans from outside Germany " , or " Volksdeutsche " , were mostly resettled in areas of Nazi occupied Poland , and had to move again at the end of World War II ( one example was the family of the former president of Germany Horst Köhler ) . Like Moldova , Budjak is home to a small minority of Gagauzes : an Orthodox Christian Turkic people who arrived from eastern Balkans in the early 19th century , and settled part the area vacated by the Nogais . The Bulgarians of the region are known as Bessarabian Bulgarians , and , like the Gagauzes , are descendants of settlers from the eastern Balkans ( today eastern Bulgaria ) who moved to the area vacated by the Nogais , in order to escape Muslim domination . During the same period , Lipovan Russians settled in the area close to the mouth of the Danube river . Until World War II , the region was also home to a significant number of Jews , a portion of whom were killed in the Holocaust along with other Bessarabian Jews . Still , Jews remained a sizeable minority in several towns , first of all in Bilhorod - Dnistrovs ' kyi until mass emigration to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s . Budjak was the only region within the former Russian Empire where a significant number of Sephardic Ladino - speaking Jews could be found as late as the second half of the 19th century . These Sephardim later assimilated with the majority of local Ashkenazic Jewry , but many retained surnames of either Turkic origin or otherwise suggestive of Sephardic descent . According to the 2001 Ukrainian census , Budjak has a population of 617 , 200 people , distributed among the ethnic groups as follows : Ukrainians 248 , 000 ( 40 % ) , Bulgarians 129 , 000 ( 21 % ) , Russians 124 , 500 ( 20 % ) , Moldovans 78 , 300 ( 13 % ) and Gagauzians 24 , 700 ( 4 % ) . ( See also the table below . ) Note , that the total population of the Odessa Oblast is , by the 2001 Ukrainian Census , 2 , 469 , 000 . Although the majority of Russians and Moldovans declared the language of their ethnicity as their mother tongue , only roughly half of Ukrainians did so , while the other half indicated Russian as their native language . The above numbers reflect the declared ethnicity , not the native language . The most common spoken language in everyday public use in Budjak is Russian . Bulgarians are the largest ethnic group in the Artsyz ( 39 % ) , Bolhrad ( 61 % ) , and Tarutyne ( 38 % ) districts ( raion s ) , Moldovans – in the Reni ( 50 % ) district ( raion ) , Russians – in the city of Izmayil ( 44 % ) , and Ukrainians – in the Kilia ( 45 % ) , Tatarbunary ( 71 % ) , Sarata ( 44 % ) , and Bilhorod - Dnistrovs ' kyi ( 82 % ) districts ( raions ) , and in the city of Bilhorod - Dnistrovs ' kyi ( 63 % ) . In the Izmail raion , 29 % of the population is Ukrainian , 28 % Moldovan , and 26 % Bulgarian . Since the previous census in 1989 , its Moldovan population increased by 1 % relative to the number of Ukrainian and Bulgarians , although the actual number of Moldovans has decreased in absolute terms , yet at a slower rate than that of Ukrainians , Russians and Bulgarians , probably due to the fact that a portion of the non - Moldovan population of the area were relatively recent arrivals from other regions of the former Soviet Union , and chose to return upon its dissolution . Local and regional authorities do not collect taxes . They are considered state institutions of the country at the local level , not institutions of local self - administration .