MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) - Poland’s former PM Donald Tusk refuted comments, made by Poland’s former foreigner minister, that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suggested to divide Ukraine, the San Francisco Gate reported on Friday.
"In none of the meetings with President Putin was such a proposition made," Tusk announced. He also added that “human memory is sometimes fallible”, referring to the remarks made by former Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski in an interview with an American Politico magazine.
In his interview, Sikorski claimed that Putin had urged the Polish government to facilitate Ukraine’s division. He said that “the deal” was suggested by Vladimir Putin during a Moscow confidential meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took place in 2008.
“He wanted us to become participants in this partition of Ukraine”, Sikorski said in the interview to Politico. “Putin wants Poland to commit troops to Ukraine. These were the signals they sent us. We have known how they think for years […] This was one of the first things that Putin said to my prime minister, Donald Tusk, when he visited Moscow.”
In his interview with TOK FM radio, Donald Tusk, who is going to take post of the president of the European Council in December 2014, contradicted Sikorski’s comments, saying that Russian President had never suggested anything like that and claiming that such a meeting never even took place.
“Ukraine was never on the agenda of talks I had with President Putin,” Tusk announced, cited by Polskie Radio dla Zagranicy. He also noted that the Moscow talks, which took place in February 2008, were not conducted personally, but were a joint meeting with several participants.
Shortly after the interview, Sikorski admitted his mistake and said that “his memory had failed him”.
