 While the use of force had been made illegal by the Conventions for the Definition of Aggression in July 1933, from an international legal standpoint the new status of the annexed territories was eventually based on a formal agreement through which Romania consented to the retrocession of Bessarabia and cession of northern Bukovina.As it was not mentioned in the ultimatum, the annexation of the Hertza district was not consented to by Romania, and the same is true of the subsequent Soviet occupation of the Danube islands.Nazi Germany, which had acknowledged the Soviet interest in Bessarabia in a secret protocol to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, had been made aware prior to the planned ultimatum on June 24 but had not informed the Romanian authorities and was willing to provide support.