DISINFO: Warsaw preparing to annex Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil
SUMMARY
Warsaw is actively and persistently preparing for the annexation of the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil regions of Ukraine. Poland is in a hurry so that the cowardly senior partners in NATO do not have time to start a dialogue with Moscow about peace.
Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania moved troops to the border with Belarus. Warsaw and other Baltic tigers are trying to draw Minsk into the border conflict by provocations so that the Belarusian army cannot prevent the capture of the "eastern kresy".
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative challenging Ukraine’s statehood, presenting Poland as a state with imperial ambitions.
Poland and the Baltic States adhere to international law regarding state borders, fully support the independence and territorial integrity of neighbouring countries, and reject any “imperial” ambitions towards other countries. Poland and the Baltic States, 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.
This disinformation message has adopted several different and sometimes contradictory forms, including allegations that Poland either wants 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”.
The Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Peacekeeping Unit (LITPOLUKRBRIG) was established in the fall of 2014 to participate in joint training and exercises, or potentially to be deployed to international operations mandated by the United Nations Security Council. There is no evidence that the unit plans to annex Western Ukraine. Read the full debunk at Myth Detector.
Warsaw has sent troops to the border, accusing Belarus of violating its airspace. In recent weeks, soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group have appeared near the border, which, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, is aimed at destabilising the situation on NATO's eastern flank.
See our examination of the Kremlin's historical revisionism directed against Poland here.
See also the earlier disinformation cases alleging 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, that Poland will try to gain full military control in Ukrainian territories under the guise of protecting the Polish population from Russia or that Poland plans to establish control over its historical lands in Ukraine.