Washington, Warsaw Plot 'Reunification' of Poland & Western Ukraine - Russian Foreign Intel Chief
10:17 GMT 28.04.2022 (Updated: 10:56 GMT 28.04.2022)
© AP Photo / Czarek Sokolowski
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Poland is mulling deploying its "peacekeeper forces" in some regions of western Ukraine under the pretext of protecting them from Russia, according to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief.
Warsaw and Washington are working on a plan to "reunite" Poland with western Ukraine, according to Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergey Naryshkin.
"According to information received by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working on plans to establish tight Polish military-political control over 'their historical possessions' in Ukraine," Naryshkin said on Thursday.
The first stage of the purported "reunification" could be the deployment of Polish troops in Western Ukraine, he noted. Warsaw could send its military contingents to some regions in Western Ukraine to "protect them from Russian aggression".
However, the intelligence official added that the Polish troops will only be deployed in the regions where the risk of clashing with the Russian forces is minimal.
"The priority 'combat missions' of the Polish military will include the gradual interception from the National Guard of Ukraine of control over strategic facilities located there," he said.
Naryshkin said that the preliminary agreements between Warsaw and Washington regarding the matter envisage the "reunification" to go on without a NATO mandate, but with the participation of the states willing to do so. However, Poland has not yet been able to reach any agreement with potential members of the "coalition of the like-minded".
"The Polish secret services are already searching for 'agreeable' representatives of the Ukrainian elite to form a Warsaw-oriented 'democratic' counterweight to the nationalists," the top intelligence official said. "According to the calculations of the Polish administration, preventive consolidation in the west of Ukraine will most likely split the country."
As restored after the First World War, Poland included a large part of what is now western Ukraine, particularly Galicia, Volhynia and Polisia. Much of modern Ukraine was originally part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, only to be divided between it and the Russian Empire later.
