Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi (Ukrainian: Чернівці́, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced [tʃern⁽ʲ⁾iu̯ˈts⁽ʲ⁾i] ⓘ; Romanian: Cernăuți, pronounced [tʃernəˈutsʲ] ⓘ; see also other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivtsi serves as the administrative center for the Chernivtsi Raion, the Chernivtsi urban hromada,[5] and the oblast itself. In 2022, the Chernivtsi population, by estimate, is 264,298 (2022 estimate),[6] and the latest census in 2001 was 240,600.[7] The first document that refers to this city dates back to 1408,[8] when Chernivtsi was a town in the region of Moldavia, formerly as a defensive fortification, and became the center of Bukovina in 1488. In 1538, Chernivtsi was under the control of the Principality of Moldavia under Ottoman Empire suzerainty, and the Moldavian control lasted for two centuries until 1774, when Austria took control of Bukovina in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War.[9] Chernivtsi (known at that time as Czernowitz) became the center of the Galicia's Bukovina District until 1848, later becoming the Duchy of Bukovina until 1918. In the aftermath of World War I, Romania united with Bukovina in 1918, which led to the city regaining its Romanian name of Cernăuți; this lasted until the Soviets occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Chernivtsi was under the control of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, after which Romania recovered the city, and then again from 1944 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after which it became part of independent Ukraine.