Warsaw plans to deploy troops to occupy western Ukraine
Intelligence obtained by Russia suggests that Poland and the US are working on a plan for Warsaw to regain control of Ukrainian areas that Warsaw considers as “historically belonging” to it, Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin has said.
According to the alleged plan, the first stage of this “reunification” will see Polish “peacekeepers” deployed in western Ukraine under the pretext of “protection from Russian aggression,” Naryshkin outlined in a statement on Thursday.
The details of the operation are now being discussed between Warsaw and the US government, he claimed, adding that the operation is designed to be executed without a NATO mandate, and only volunteer states taking part.
Warsaw has so far been unable to find any other nations to join its cause, he added. But the Polish authorities are unconcerned by this, as they want to minimize the number of “unnecessary witnesses” to their actions, Naryshkin said.
Despite their publicly declared goal of countering Moscow, the Polish troops would be deployed in parts of Ukraine where they’ll have almost no chance of engaging Russian forces, he explained.
According to Russian data, the actual “tactical objective” of the Polish troops will be taking control of strategic facilities from the Ukrainian National Guard. Poland’s intelligence services are apparently now searching for “reliable” members of the Kiev elite, who would be willing to form a pro-Warsaw counterbalance to Ukrainian nationalists.
The Polish government assumes that entrenching its forces in western Ukraine would, with a high probability, lead to the split of the country, he claimed. In this case, control over the territories where the peacekeepers are set to be deployed would remain in the hands of Warsaw, the spy chief continued.
The plan appears to be an attempt, he pointed out, to repeat an historic deal that was struck after World War I and saw Western nations accept Warsaw’s right to occupy, in the first instance, parts of Ukraine to protect its people from the “Bolshevik threat” and, later, to include those areas into the Polish state.
Ukraine’s western frontiers were last redrawn after World War II when Poland agreed to part with the Eastern Galicia region and most of Volhynia, which were incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Warsaw was compensated with land which had previously been part of Germany, most notably gaining the port city of Gdansk (Danzig).
Nazi Germany invaded Poland in August 1939, paving the way for a six-year occupation, which ended in 1945 when the Polish lands were liberated by the Red Army.
In 1943, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia became the scene of mass killings perpetrated by the Ukrainian nationalist groups OUN-UPA (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – Ukrainian Insurgent Army), which collaborated with the Nazis. Up to 100,000 people, mostly Poles and Jews, are believed to have been murdered back then.
A few years ago the Polish parliament recognized the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the Poles during WWII as “genocide.” Members of the leadership which authorised the atrocities are now regarded as national heroes in Ukraine.
Poland Plans to Annexing Part of Ukrainian Territories
While the Western world continues to claim that Russia is interested in “annexing” or “fragmenting” Ukraine, current reality shows that the geopolitical players interested in attacking Kiev’s sovereign territory are others. Recent investigations reported by Russian intelligence point out that the Polish government, supported by the US and other Western powers, plans to invade and seize territorial portions in eastern Ukraine. As expected, Polish officials deny involvement in this type of maneuver and the Western media remains absolutely silent.
In a new episode of the military conflict in Ukraine, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service stated that the US and Poland are currently planning to take “military-political control” over western Ukraine through a future armed intervention. In a press release, Sergey Naryshkin, head of the SVR (Russian acronym for Foreign Intelligence Service), said that, according to information received by his agency, Washington and Warsaw are planning to gain control over Polish historic possessions in western Ukraine.
“According to the intelligence acquired by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are engaged on plans to establish Poland’s tight military and political control over its historic possessions in Ukraine”, he said during a public statement on April 28.
Naryshkin also pointed out some strategic details about how the occupation of the western Ukrainian region would take place. The process is related to the already admitted Polish intention to start a “peace operation” in Ukraine, which is already supported by the West to some extent. The Poles would use as an argument that their operation would aim to protect the Polish population and heritage against “Russian aggression” and then initiate an absolute political and military control in that region.
Obviously, the only stance taken by the Polish government has been absolute denial. Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski, denied on the same day all information alleged by the Russians. Unlike the Moscow’s official, however, the spokesman did not offer more in-depth information about what the real Polish strategic objectives with a possible “peace operation” would be, only continuing the already known Western speech about the “information warfare and the spread of fake news” supposedly practiced by Russia.
These were some of his words about the case: “Sergey Naryshkin continues Russian information operation against Poland and the US. Russia’s intelligence chief is spreading insinuations against Poland and the US, convincing falsely that both countries are preparing a Polish annexation of western Ukraine”.
In fact, the claim does not seem unsubstantiated. Warsaw has historic territorial claims in western Ukraine. Many Polish cities after the Second World War became part of the then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, including Lviv, which is today a major point of military and geostrategic importance. In these regions, it is possible to speak Polish or Ukrainian with “Polishisms”, the Roman Catholic faith is practiced and there is a strong ethnic presence of Poles.
In recent years, due to the stability of relations between NATO (of which Poland is a member) and Kiev, the matter concerning historically Polish territories has practically been “forgotten” by geopolitical experts. But, in the same sense, it is absolutely reasonable to think that, in the midst of conflicts and tensions, Poland with the support of NATO wants to retake these territories, which would have great geostrategic value for the western alliance.
It is also necessary to mention that, interestingly, the western media has avoided commenting on the case, even though it is a serious issue and with a strong possibility of escalation in the Ukrainian conflict. Apparently, for the mainstream media, it is forbidden to talk about “attempts to balkanize Ukraine” when the player involved is a NATO member.
On one side of the war of narratives, there is an intelligence agency claiming to have reliable sources and providing details on how its predictions will come to completion, while on the other there is only a formal denial and baseless accusation about alleged “Russian lies”. In fact, there is no way to predict what will happen, but it is reasonable that there should be at least concern on the part of international society and an effort to prevent Warsaw from starting another escalation of the conflict by annexing Ukrainian territories.
Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
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