Author: Fedya Kuznetsov,  Photo: Gagauz people of Ceadîr-Lunga city in Moldova. CC BY-SA 4.0  

Independent Moldovan news outlet NewsMaker published an article about the Gagauz people, who live both in Moldova and Ukraine.  Global Voices translated the article, edited for clarity, and republished it with permission from NewsMaker.

How did the Gagauz people end up in Ukraine? At the beginning of the 19th century, Gagauz settlers from the Balkans established themselves in Budjak in the steppe region of southern Bessarabia. In 1940, when the territory of Bessarabia was ceded to the USSR, Budjak was divided: the larger part became part of the Ukrainian SSR, while the smaller part was included in the Moldavian SSR. At that time, although the Gagauz found themselves in different republics, they remained within the same country and maintained their connections: they married, visited each other for celebrations, and were assigned to work in Gagauz villages in both republics.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova and Ukraine became independent neighboring states, and the Gagauz on both sides of the border automatically became citizens of these countries.

The Gagauz autonomy in Moldova is traditionally a pro-Russian region, where almost 95 percent of voters opposed the European referendum, and the head of the autonomy, Yevgenia Gutsul, regularly visits Moscow, takes photographs with the Russian president, and congratulates him on his birthday.

Historically, there were more Gagauz settlements in Moldova, and according to the 2024 census, about 100,000 Gagauz (4.2 percent of Moldova's population) live there, with around 85,000 residing in the Gagauz autonomy.

In contrast, the Gagauz of Ukraine are one of the smallest ethnic groups in the country. In 2001, there were about 32,000 Gagauz living in Ukraine, most of them (27,000) in compact settlements in the Odesa region on the border with Moldova.

Over two days, NewsMaker reporters visited four Gagauz villages in Ukraine: Vinogradovka (part of the Bolgrad community), Kotlovina (Reniy community), Alexandrovka, and Dmitrovka (Ogorodnen community).

In Vinogradovka, NewsMaker interviewed  the director of the Gagauz Culture Center, Olga Kulaksyz:

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, two natives of Vinogradovka have died.

Kulaksyz’s fate has flowed from one country to another: she was born in the Gagauz village of Dezghingea in Moldova to a Gagauz father and a Moldovan mother. When asked how she identifies, she answers without hesitation:

Gagauz. I will always be Gagauz.

The Gagauz of Ukraine have adopted some customs from the local Bulgarians, as there are more Bulgarian settlements in the region. Our regional Gagauz cultural center has been operating for ten years. We preserve household items, customs, and traditions of the Gagauz and maintain ties with museums and scientific-cultural institutions in the Gagauz autonomy of Moldova

However, she notes that after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, these contacts have diminished.

There are no longer the close connections between the Gagauz of Moldova and Ukraine that once existed. But how deep this divide is will be shown by time. Yes, I still travel to Gagauzia for work. Maybe not all Vinogradovka residents understand why I do this. But the culture of a people must be preserved. A people only live when its culture lives

In the evening, the reporters arrived in Kotlovina, a Gagauz village on the shores of Ukraine’s largest lake, Yalpuh, and were met by the village elder, Elena Yamandi, and the local community leaders. In 2022 a Ukrainian journalist Andriy Anastasov wrote on Facebook about village women knitting socks for Ukrainian soldiers.

The initiator of this effort was the school director, Praskovya. She says:

The winter of 2022–2023 was harsh. I suggested to the women that we try knitting wool socks. We ended up knitting 123 pairs. Everyone participated — both young and old, even an 86-year-old grandmother. Not everyone can take up arms and go to war, but right now, in Ukraine, everyone has their own front.

About twenty people from Kotlovina serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, two of whom are missing in action.

On the second day of  NewsMaker reporters’ trip to the Gagauz in Ukraine, they traveled to more remote villages — Dmitrovka and Alexandrovka. Moldova is just a short distance away.

Reporters interviewed Dmitrovka's elder, Kirill Grekov. A Ukrainian flag waves atop the building, as it does on all administrative buildings. He says:

I am seventy-five years old. I have worked all my life as an art teacher at school and continue to do so. Last year, I was asked to head the village because our elder resigned.

The village elder is responsible for delivering draft notices to those registered in the village. “It’s an unpleasant feeling: imagine handing out a draft notice, the person goes to the front, and something happens to them. God forbid,” Grekov says.

The head of Alexandrovka, Petru Draganov, says that about a thousand people currently live in the village. At the start of the war, many Alexandrovka residents returned to the village but later left again. “There are 135 students in the school, about 40 children in the kindergarten. There are few people in the village, mostly women. The men leave for work,” says Draganov.

Elena Vasilioglo, the director of the Alexandrovka House of Culture, recalls how the war came to their village. “Early in the morning, I wanted to trim the vineyard before work. A neighbour says, ‘What are you doing? Leave everything, the war has begun.’ I was in shock, to be honest. And soon it will be three years since the war started. It doesn’t get worse than this,” Vasilioglo says, crying.

This is how the Ukrainian Gagauz have been living for almost three years now. Many admit that they did not immediately believe or comprehend that Russia could invade Ukraine and start a full-scale war.

“To be honest, I was very loyal to Russia before February 24,” says Yekaterina Zyrina, a resident of the village of Kotlovina.

But after the war started, my views changed 180 degrees. When Russia annexed Crimea, honestly, I was relatively indifferent to it. But when, just before the war, they annexed the so-called LNR and DNR, that affected me. Their attitude was that Ukraine shouldn't exist. This is my country — why shouldn’t it exist? In my opinion, we were very wrong about Russia. In Moldova, the Gagauz have not been affected by this yet, but here in Ukraine, we have all been affected

However, among the Ukrainian Gagauz, there are also those who believe that “not everything is so clear-cut.”

“I think the Russian language should not be banned. And Russian speakers should not be persecuted. My friends in Moldova fear that what happened here could happen to them. In our village, there are those who consider Russia an aggressor. I can’t give a definite answer to that,” said one of NewsMaker's interviewees.

Nevertheless, regardless of whom NewsMaker spoke to among the Ukrainian Gagauz, all of them unequivocally called Ukraine their homeland.

“You see, this is our homeland, this is the country we live in. This is the place where my children were born and raised,” said Kulaksyz.

“We are not just Gagauz here, we are specifically Ukrainian Gagauz,” emphasized Nina Dayneka, director of the Kotlovina Museum.

Gagauz Ukrainians, talking to their relatives in Moldova, often try to avoid discussing the war.

“I have relatives in Gagauzia. But we don’t talk about the war. We talk about life, about children. Just everyday conversations. And we try not to mention the war, so it doesn’t hurt them and it doesn’t hurt us,” says the village head of Dmitrovka.

Olga Kulaksyz also does not talk about the war with her relatives. According to her, no one wants war, regardless of what Gagauz people in Ukraine and Moldova may say.