Controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova in the context of "Romanians"

Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians (Romanian: moldoveni, Moldovan Cyrillic: молдовень, pronounced [moldoˈvenʲ]), are an ethnic group native to Moldova, who mostly speak the Romanian language, also referred to locally as Moldovan. Moldovans form significant communities in Romania, Italy, Ukraine and Russia.

There is an ongoing controversy in Moldova over whether Moldovans constitute an ethnic group separate from Romanians or not. 77.18% and 7.9% of the Moldovan population declared Moldovan and Romanian ethnicity respectively in the 2024 Moldovan census, with 49.2% declaring their mother language to be Moldovan and 31.3% declaring it to be Romanian. According to opinion polls, around one third of Moldova's population supports unification with Romania.

This article represents an overview on the history of Romanians in Ukraine, including those Romanians of Northern Bukovina, Zakarpattia, the Hertsa region, and Budjak in Odesa Oblast, but also those Romanophones in the territory between the Dniester River and the Southern Buh river, who traditionally have not inhabited any Romanian state (nor Transnistria), but have been an integral part of the history of modern Ukraine, and are considered natives to the area. There is an ongoing controversy whether self-identified Moldovans are part of the larger Romanian ethnic group or a separate ethnicity. A large majority of the Romanian-speakers living in the former territories of Bukovina and Hertsa region, as well as in Transcarpathia, consider themselves to be ethnic Romanians, but only a minority of those in the historical province of Bessarabia, and the areas further to the east, do. There was a significant decrease in the number of individuals who identified themselves as ethnic Moldovans in the 1989 Soviet census, and a significant increase in the number of self-identified ethnic Romanians, especially, but not exclusively, in northern Bukovina and the Hertsa area according to the 2001 Ukrainian census (see the data later in the article).