Zelensky doesn't take seriously warnings of Ukraine's possible division
KYIV/MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he views the warnings that Ukraine might be divided as purely Russian ideas and believes the West cannot take them seriously.
While speaking to Polish journalists last Friday, Zelensky was asked about his attitude toward Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin's warning that Poland is mulling the idea of taking control of western Ukraine.
"My attitude toward this statement is that civilized countries won't take it seriously," Zelensky said.
"Russia has 'given' Transcarpathia to Hungary in the media environment and encouraged Poland to speak about western Ukraine [...] Information messages are like missiles," he said.
"This is aimed at ensuring constant destabilization and keeping East European countries divided," Zelensky said.
Naryshkin said last Thursday, according to some intelligence possessed by the SVR, Poland and the United States were exploring a plan of taking control of part of Ukraine's territory.
"The information received by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service indicates that Washington and Warsaw are hatching plans of close military-political control of Poland over 'its historical lands' in Ukraine," the agency press service quoted Naryshkin as saying.
"The deployment of Polish forces to western areas of the country under the slogan of their 'protection from the Russian aggression'" is due to become the first stage of Poland's operation, he said.
According to the SVR, Warsaw and the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden are discussing modalities of the upcoming mission. "There is a preliminary agreement it will be conducted without a NATO mandate but with the participation of 'interested countries'," Naryshkin said.
Russian intelligence has information that a Polish contingent will be deployed to Ukrainian territories where the chance of confrontation with the Russian Armed Forces is minimal, in order to take control of local strategic facilities in a later period, he said.
"The Polish administration believes there is a high chance that its preventive control over western Ukraine will lead to a breakup of the country. In that case, Warsaw will de-facto govern the areas where 'Polish peacekeepers' will be deployed," Naryshkin said.
Some of the western regions of Ukraine were part of Poland before 1939.
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