Russian spy chief claims Warsaw plan to take over Western Ukraine

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Russian spy chief claims Warsaw plan to take over Western Ukraine

Sergey Naryshkin claims that the land grab is envisaged as achievable by deploying Polish troops in the west of the country.

Foreign Intelligence Service SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin said that Russia and the US are working on a plan to give Warsaw control of Ukrainian areas that Warsaw considers historically belonging to it.

According to the plan, Polish peacekeepers will be deployed in western Ukraine under the pretext of protection from Russian aggression, Naryshkin said in a statement on Thursday.

He claimed that the operation will be carried out without a NATO mandate, with only volunteer countries taking part in the operation.

He said that Warsaw has so far been unable to find any other nations to join its cause. The Polish authorities aren't bothered by it all, as they are interested in having less unnecessary witnesses to their actions, Naryshkin said.

Despite the announced goal of countering Moscow, Polish troops are planned to be deployed in parts of Ukraine where they will have almost no real chance of engaging Russian forces, he pointed out.

According to Russian data, the Polish troops will have the ability to regain control of strategic facilities from the Ukrainian National Guard. Poland's intelligence services are searching for reliable members of the Ukrainian elite who would be willing to form a pro-Warsaw counterbalance to the Ukrainian nationalists.

The Polish government assumes that entrenching its forces in Western Ukraine would lead to the split of the country, he claimed. The spy chief said the control over the territories where the peacekeepers are going to be deployed will remain in the hands of Warsaw.

He pointed out that the plan appears to be an attempt to repeat the historic deal that was struck after World War I and saw the Western nations accept Warsaw's right to occupy parts of Ukraine to protect its people from the Bolshevik threat, and later to include those areas into the Polish state.