The town of Hotin has been continually changing empire for a millennium. The land of Hotin to the south until the river Prut was previously within the Principality of Moldavia. Following the annexing of eastern Moldavia by Russia in 1812 this area was in the newly created “Besarabia”, but following the changes in 1940 the predominantly Romanian villages in the south east remained in the Soviet Republic of Moldova whereas the predominantly Romanian villages in the south west ended up in the Ukraine.