The Romanian administration and military were evacuated, while the Red Army and the NKVD quickly occupied the land.

[3] From the more remote areas of Chernivtsi Oblast (the northern portion of the acquired territories that were included in the USSR), such as the districts of Vashkivtsi, Zastavna, Novoselytsia, Sadhora, and Chernivtsi-rural, 628 people crossed the border to find refuge in Romania.

Second, lists were made of families that had one or more members which had fled to Romania, and thus were considered "traitors of the Motherland", therefore subject to labor camp deportation.

[4] On 19 November 1940, 40 families (a total of 105 people) from the village of Suceveni, also carrying 20 guns, tried to cross the frontier at Fântâna Albă.

Volleys of machine gun fire from multiple directions resulted in numerous dead (hundreds),[6] including the organizers N. Merticar, N. Nica, and N. Isac.

[2] According to the testimony of Mihai Crăiuț, one of the survivors of the Lunca massacre, approximately 300 young men and boys were buried in 3 mass graves, not far from the Prut River.

It has been claimed that these persecutions were part of a program of deliberate extermination, planned and executed by the Soviet regime.

[12][7]: 56 In 2011, the Chamber of Deputies of Romania adopted a law establishing April 1 as the National Day honoring the memory of Romanian victims of massacres at Lunca, Fântâna Albă, and other areas, of deportations, of hunger, and other forms of repression organized by the Soviet regime in Hertsa, northern Bukovina, and Bessarabia.