The article analyzes the relations between two largest ethnic groups of Bukovina: Ukrainians and Romanians in the nineteenth and early twentieth centu- ries. It is noted that both national projects set the ultimate goal of association with the rest of the ethnic lands (respectively, Ukrainian and Romanian) in an independ- ent state. This was particularly evident in the fall of 1918, when the Ukrainians took power in Northern Bukovina and proclaimed the unification of Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina and Transcarpathia in the independent Western-Ukrainian People’s Republic. However, the Romanian politicians put forward the slogan that all Bukovina should be a part of Romania and contributed to the occupation of the region by the Romanian troops. As a result, the national rights of the Ukrainians were grossly violated; the Ukrainian ethnic territories of Northern Bukovina fell un- der the control of the royal Romania for twenty years.