Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a French-made CAESAR self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions. AP File
New Delhi: Former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said that the government in Warsaw considered partitioning Ukraine in the first weeks of the military conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
According to a Russia Today report, he was asked in an interview to Radio ZET on Monday if the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) government had ever entertained the idea of dividing up Ukraine, to which Sikorski replied, “There was a moment of hesitation in the first 10 days of the war, when we all didn’t know how it would go, that maybe Ukraine would fall.”
“Had it not been for the heroism of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the help of the West, things could have been different,” Sikorski was further quoted as saying.
His comments drew a strong retort from the Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who accused Sikorski of behaving “like a Russian propagandist.”
“The former foreign minister must weigh his words. I expect these disgraceful statements to be withdrawn. I call on the opposition to dissociate themselves from Radoslaw Sikorski’s declaration,” Morawiecki tweeted.
In April last year, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin said that the US and Poland were plotting to gain a sphere of influence in Ukraine, insinuating that the war could end with the forced partition of Ukraine between the West and Russia.
Citing unpublished intelligence, Naryshkin said that the United States and Poland, NATO allies, were plotting to restore Polish control over parts of western Ukraine.
“According to the intelligence received by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working on plans to establish Poland’s tight military and political control over its historical possessions in Ukraine,” Naryshkin had said in a rare statement released by the SVR.
Poland has ruled some territories currently under Kiev’s rule, most recently between the two world wars. Western Ukraine, including the city of Lvov, was later taken into the Soviet Union.
The US was discussing with Poland a plan under which Polish “peacekeeping” forces without a NATO mandate would enter parts of western Ukraine where the chance of confronting Russian forces was low, the statement added.
Poland has been staunchly supporting Ukraine against Russia since the beginning of the war, as it has been arming Kiev and receiving vast amounts of Ukrainian refugees.
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