In late 2022, the Russian SVR Intelligence Service launched a new magazine titled Intelligence Officer (“Rasviedchik”). 

The latter is yet another propaganda tool of the Kremlin, allowing Vladimir Putin to push his anti-Western narrative through to the Russian public. It consists among others, of a series of geopolitical analyses. 

One of the texts published lately in the magazine refers to an often repeated accusation of Russia toward Poland. “Rasviedchik” accused Poland of planning to annex Western Ukraine. This is a claim that has been repeated numerous times by Putin apologists to discredit Warsaw. 

In October 2014, Poland’s Speaker of the Parliament and Former Foreign Affairs Minister Radosław Sikorski revealed à quite telling anecdote to the media. He explained that during a visit to Moscow, Poland’s then PM Donald Tusk received a proposition from Vladimir Putin to dismantle Ukraine. 

“He [Putin] said that Ukraine is an artificial state, that Lviv is a Polish city, and that it is worth taking care of it together” – Sikorski explained at the time. He also added that, knowing he was being recorded, Tusk remained silent. 

https://twitter.com/inteltakes/status/1613601495483842560?s=20&t=5mMVJpnS5QlKnAEEw8zGTg

Obviously, Russia’s accusations of Polish revisionism aren’t to be taken seriously. That was the case in 2014, and it did not change. No serious Polish official even considers such a scenario, be it militarily or via any diplomatic way. It’s widely accepted across the Polish political scene that such a plan represents nothing more than a dangerous fantasy.

Indeed, what is known today as Western Ukraine used to be Poland for centuries. One would need to be dishonest not to acknowledge the Polish heritage of Lviv (Lwów). Nevertheless, Poland is a strong proponent of the principle of not redrawing the maps of Europe. Although some Poles may feel nostalgic about the times when Poland extended more to the East, the eventuality of regaining these lost territories has long been forgotten. 

Warsaw is in favour of promoting the inviolability of the borders of each and every European country. What the Kremlin is doing by claiming that Poles have the ambition to somehow recuperate Western Ukraine is projecting its own imperialist and belligerent fantasies on a country that wants to be allowed to exist and left alone. 

Image: Twitter (@inteltakes)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen