The city it was centered on is now known as Khotyn (Хотин), and is located in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine; in 1919, it was the capital of Hotin County, on the unofficial border between Romania and the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR).

After days of guerrilla activities by peasants, a large contingent of trained partisans crossed the Dniester from UNR territory, and, on January 23, managed to capture the city, creating confusion among Romanian Army garrisons.

Imperial Russia began its incursions into Moldavia with the Pruth River Campaign of 1710–1711, prompting the Ottomans to annex Khotyn Fortress and reconstruct the corresponding Hotin County into a distinct raya in 1714.

[17] Also newly proclaimed, the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) issued claims to the whole of Bessarabia or to Khotyn area as early as July 1917,[18] but also maintained friendly relations with the RDM and Romania.

Although Marghiloman went into the negotiations promising that "under no circumstances would we lose Hotin",[35] the act ceded 600 square kilometers of land to Austrian Bukovina, including parts of the county, alongside the neighboring Hertsa region.

A branch of the Ukrainian Army, including a 2nd Cavalry Division under Commandant Kolesnikov, was established in Khotyn, whose civilian authorities argued that Marghiloman had willingly renounced his claims to the area.

[57] Reports by UNR Podolian officials noted that by December "gangs of Moldovans", assisted by the Ukrainians of Stara Ushytsia, made random attacks on Romanian border guards across the Dniester.

"[73] These reinforcements succeeded in taking over a string of villages, including Arionești, Codreni, Naslavcea, Pocrovca, and Rudi; on January 23, after reaching Secureni, rebellion erupted in Khotyn itself, chasing out the Romanian garrison.

[80] Three days later, one of the groups involved issued an appeal to the international community, including both Soviet Russia and the UNR, which referred to the sufferings of the "Bessarabian people" and to the Directorate as a legitimate government of Bessarabia.

[88] Șornikov summarizes this clash of visions within the movement as a "split of patriotic forces into Whites and Reds",[89] with partisans of Ukrainian nationalism and "Little Bukovina" reportedly forming a majority of the Directorate.

Historian Ion Gumenâi sees him as an actual commander of the rebel troops;[102] a similar verdict was advanced by a collective of authors from the State Archives of Chernivtsi, who suggest that Mayevski distributed arms to the Bessarabian Directorate.

[106] In his memoirs, however, Doroshenko hints that the UNR's 60th Infantry Regiment was moved to Zhvanets specifically in order to help the rebel expedition, or at least to cover its retreat in case of a Romanian counterattack.

[108] Major M. McLaren of the Royal Navy, who was mistakenly arrested by the rebels as a Romanian spy, reports that no UNA troops were on show, though noting the passing presence of Cossacks with an undisclosed allegiance.

[112] On January 28–30, the regrouped units, under Colonel Victor Tomoroveanu, forced rebels out of Noua Suliță, Nedăbăuți, Dăncăuți and Cliscăuți, reaching Anadol; other groups retook Rucșin and Rașcov.

[113] A state of siege was imposed in neighboring Bukovina, before troops from there could be marched into Hotin County;[114] "already on February 1, the insurgent forces were pushed back over the Dniester, and internal rebellions were repressed".

However, Davidoglu could not be replaced in time, and, with his aide Ressel, was the one to actually take Khotyn; they had already received orders to quell any incursion or revolt "with the greatest violence, including the complete destruction of any [rebel] locality".

Although Giurcă believes that Davidoglu acted "within the confines of wartime regulations",[118] fellow generals, including Ion Antonescu, criticized his random killing of civilians, noting that it enshrined Romania's negative image as a "country of savages".

[139] Similar accounts mention other acts of cruelty, including at Rucșin, where Major Popescu shot 12 captives after forcing them to dig their own grave, also killing any disabled men he found in civilian homes.

[148] While Petala asked to command an expeditionary force that would establish a bridgehead in Podolia, Prezan continued to discuss the matter with UNR authorities, warning them to disarm any groups still hiding on the Dniester.

Zhurari's men declared their neutrality, but nevertheless found themselves labeled as enemy troops by the French army command; they then joined the intervention forces and participated in political repression, executing among others the father of Bolshevik leader Pavel Tcacenco.

As noted by Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Popenko: "From the very first days of the conference, Romanian diplomats had been active in arguing that the Khotyn Uprising was an attempt by the Bolsheviks to destabilize the country and spread its ideology further into Europe.

"[163] Popenko also notes that this approach came to be favored by the Allied intervention forces in Russia, who advised the UNR to settle its border issues with Romania, viewing the latter as the "final bulwark against Bolshevism".

VSYuR's Gagauz was able to recruit some 13,000 veterans from the Ukrainian Galician Army, who were then distributed to garrisons along the Dniester, ostensibly preparing to "liberate Bessarabia" upon the end of the Russian Civil War.

[193] In 1938, the National Renaissance Front regime bid on subverting traditional loyalties in Bessarabia, dividing the region into larger administrative units that straddled old borders into Bukovina and Western Moldavia.

[204] Shortly before this formal reoccupation, Romanian troops in Atachi tried to expel the entire Jewish population from Hotin County into Reichskommissariat Ukraine, a matter which caused tension between them and Nazi Germany.

[207] Antonescu and his favorite demographer, Sabin Manuilă, viewed the Dniester as a defensible frontier, but agreed to relinquish northern Hotin and Cernăuți counties to a Ukrainian state, in exchange for Pokuttya.

An attack of some importance took place in late December 1918 [sic] and created troubles among the Ruthenian population in Hotin county; Romanian general Poetaș was killed during these fights.

[224] Potylchak also proposes a critical view of post-Soviet Ukrainian readings of Khotyn, in that it fails to account for the popular and spontaneous nature of the struggle and instead overemphasizes Mayevski's alleged contribution.

Nartsov reported the mainstream view, according to which 50,000 peasants had fled into newly conquered Soviet territory during the Romanian backlash, but, as noted by van Meurs, his count was later "revised as 50,000 casualties.

[241] Historian Mitru Ghițiu proposes that any Moldovan resistance to communism was casually silenced by Soviet writers: "the issue was never even up for discussion, with authorities fearing that any glimpse of the truth could bring into question the Romanian's 'boundless joy' at being 'liberated' by the Bolsheviks.