quality:correction, stylistic:style_transfer
Geography

Moldova is a landlocked country situated in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans in the Black Sea Basin, between latitudes 45° and 49° N, and mostly between meridians 26° and 30° E (a small area lies east of 30°). The country lies to the east of the Carpathian Mountains and is bordered by Romania to its west and by Ukraine to its north, east, and south. The total length of the national boundaries is 1,389 km, including 939 km with Ukraine and 450 km with Romania. The country is separated from Romania on the west by the Prut river and on the east from Ukraine by the Dniester river. The total land area is 33,843.5 km (13,067.0 sq mi), of which 960 km (370 sq mi) is water. The largest part of the country (around 88% of the area) lies in the Bessarabia region, while a narrow strip in the east is located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria on the eastern bank of the Dniester.

Although the country is technically landlocked, in 1999 Moldova acquired from Ukraine (in exchange for ceding a stretch of contested road in the east of the country) a 0.45 kilometer river frontage to the Danube, on the confluence of the Danube and Prut rivers. This has transformed the old village of Giurgiulești (in the extreme south-west of the country) into a river port, providing Moldova access to international waters via the Danube and the Black Sea. The Dniester river, which rises in Ukraine near the city of Drohobych, passes through Moldova, separating the main territory from its unrecognised breakaway region Transnistria, and empties into the Black Sea in Ukraine. At its closest point, Moldova is separated from the Dniester Liman, an estuary of the Black Sea, by only 3 km of Ukrainian territory.

While most of the country is hilly, elevations never exceed 430 m (1,410 ft), the highest point being the Bălănești Hill. Moldova's hills are part of the Moldavian Plateau, which geologically originate from the Carpathian Mountains. Its subdivisions in Moldova include the Dniester Hills (Northern Moldavian Hills and Dniester Ridge), the Moldavian Plain (Middle Prut Valley and Bălți Steppe), and the Central Moldavian Plateau (Ciuluc-Soloneț Hills, Cornești Hills— Codri Massive, "Codri" meaning "forests"—Lower Dniester Hills, Lower Prut Valley, and Tigheci Hills). In the south, the country has a small flatland, the Bugeac Plain. The territory of Moldova east of the river Dniester is split between parts of the Podolian Plateau, and parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Moldova's exceptionally rich Chernozem soil covers around three-quarters of the country's land area.

Moldova's capital and largest city is Chișinău, with approximately a third of the country's population residing in its metro area. Chișinău is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc, a tributary of the Dniester. Moldova's second-largest city is Tiraspol, which lies on the eastern bank of the Dniester and is the capital of the unrecognised breakaway region of Transnistria. The country's third-largest city is Bălți, often referred to as the 'northern capital'. It is situated 127 kilometres (79 miles) north of the capital Chișinău, and is located on the river Răut, a tributary of the Dniester, on a hilly landscape in the Bălți steppe. Comrat is the administrative centre of the autonomous region of Gagauzia.