DISINFO: The West is pushing Poland to take over Western Ukraine
SUMMARY
The West and NATO are in a deadlock because Russia is winning the war. The US and NATO need to either acknowledge their loss or to escalate the situation and start a new page in the war. Hence, the West is strongly pushing Poland to take over Western Ukraine, and Poland’s ambitions are adding to this. The larger the misfortunes of the Ukrainian military forces, the likelier this Polish move is.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative challenging Ukraine’s statehood and presenting Poland as a state with imperial ambitions.
It aims to frame Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as a confrontation with a Russophobic and belligerent collective West. The aim is to deflect and dilute Russia’s responsibility for the war. Not only Western but also many other nations around the world are helping Ukraine repel Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked aggression with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to stop Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
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, it has also included the Baltic countries 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 Poland thinks that Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and South-Western Lithuania belongs to it, that Poland wants to dismember Ukraine and re-establish a Polish empire, that Ukraine is a Western colony belonging to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Russia, and that Poland plans to establish control over its historical lands in Ukraine.