DISINFO: Poland started preparations for the incorporation of Western Ukraine
SUMMARY
There are reasons to believe that Warsaw has turned to preparations for incorporating the western territories of Ukraine into the Polish state. In March, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński proposed to send a NATO mission to Ukraine or a wider mission “that will be able to defend itself” operating on the Ukrainian territory”. In May, the Polish President Andrzej Duda said “there would no longer be a border between Poland and Ukraine” and that the inhabitants of both countries could live together.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative challenging Ukraine’s statehood and presenting Poland as a state with imperial ambitions.
This disinformation 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 annex these territories or that it is President Zelenskyy who wants to cede this land due to his “Polish origin”.
Poland adheres to international law regarding state borders, fully supports the independence and territorial integrity of neighbouring countries and it rejects any “imperial” ambitions towards other countries. Poland, as well as the EU and the US respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. No neighbouring state, except the Russian Federation, violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Read more about the Eastern policy of Poland here.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that Poland thinks that Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and South-Western Lithuania belong to them, 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, that Poland will try to gain full military control in Ukrainian territories under the guise of protecting the Polish population from Russia, that Poland plans to establish control over its historical lands in Ukraine.