_____ The Eastern Carpathians extend from the Biała River, Tylych Pass, and Toplia River in the west to the Tysa River, Prislop Pass, and Suceava River in the southeast. Sometimes the western limit of the Eastern Carpathians is defined by the Oslava River, Laborets River, and Sian River. In Soviet texts the Moldavian Carpathians are included in the Eastern Carpathians, which extend as far south as the Predeal Pass. The Eastern Carpathians (excluding the Low Beskyd) are known as the Forested or Ukrainian Carpathians. They consist of the flysch band (the Beskyds) and the volcanic band (the Volcanic Ukrainian Carpathians). In the southeast the Beskyds meet the crystalline Maramureş-Bukovynian Upland. With the Low Beskyd the Eastern Carpathians cover an area of almost 40,000 sq km and, without it, an area of 32,000 sq km. Ukrainian ethnic territory in the Carpathians up to 1946 covered 24,000 sq km and had a population of 1.7 million. Today 22,500 sq km of the Carpathians, with a population of approximately 1.2 million, belong to Ukraine. The Carpathian Mountains, particularly Transcarpathia, are important to Ukraine from a geopolitical viewpoint. The Carpathian watershed defined for many centuries the political border of Ukraine, but not the ethnic border, since the mountain passes allowed Ukrainians to penetrate the southern slopes. Thus, the Carpathian region, along with the adjacent edge of the Transcarpathian Lowland, connects Ukraine with Hungary and Slovakia, which lie in the Pannonian Basin (for more detail see Transcarpathia).