Bukovina is a historical region in Eastern Europe which is divided between Romania and Ukraine, formerly a part of Moldova. The region was once a part of the Ottoman puppet state of Moldavia, but the Austrian Empire annexed the region in 1774 after the Second Partition of Poland, as Austria needed a road between Eastern Galicia and Transylvania. Chernowitz (Chernivtsi) was the capital of Bukovina, and Bukovina was held by Austria until 1918, when Romania acquired the region after World War I. In 1940, the Soviet Union breached the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Axis Powers by occupying Bukovina and Bessarabia, and the northern parts of Bukovina were added to the Ukrainian SSR; today, they are still a part of Ukraine.