DISINFO: Poland in a hurry to annex western Ukraine before dialogue with Moscow starts
SUMMARY
Poland is hurriedly getting ready to annex Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil before more influential NATO countries start peace negotiations with Russia. Additional Polish troops, and the troops of Lithuania and Latvia, were moved closer to the borders with Belarus. This move was explained by the 1 August intrusion of Belarusian planes into the Polish airspace which never took place. Poland and the Baltic states are trying to bring Belarus into a border conflict to distract the Belarusian army from occupying western Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Poland and other countries intend to occupy Ukrainian territory. The aim is manifold: to create the illusion that some of Ukraine’s allies are governed by historical revanchism; seed mistrust between Kyiv and some of its backers; and deflect attention away from Russia' aggression.
The article, just like the Belarusian side, denies the incursion of two military helicopters into Polish airspace on 1 August 2023, referring to Belarusian planes instead. Multiple media reports (e.g. here and here) confirm that residents of Polish village of Bialowieza saw Belarusian helicopters briefly flying over the locality on that day.
The false allegation that Poland was plotting with the US to divide Ukraine and take over some territory was initially spread by the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Narishkin in April 2022, and later repeated by the head of Russia’s National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and other top officials. This message has adopted several different and sometimes contradictory forms, including allegations that Poland wants either to create a puppet proxy-state in Western Ukraine or the annexation of these territories or that it is actually President Zelenskyy who wants to cede this land. More recently, the Baltic countries have also been included in these allegations of irredentism over Ukrainian territories. See here for an in-depth analysis and debunk of this disinfo claim.
In January 2023, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine signed a joint statement supporting Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, in line with other statements by Poland alone, the EU and the US. Ukraine's sovereignty has been violated as a result of continuous acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since 2014, culminating with a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine starting on 24 February 2022.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the process of transferring the territory of Ukraine to Poland has begun, that Poland is in the final phase of annexing Ukrainian territories, that the Kyiv junta has already agreed to the annexation by Poland, or that Poland and the Baltic states are preparing to send troops to Ukraine and attack Belarus.