The head of Russian foreign intelligence once again assessed Poland as a plan to seize a sphere of influence in Ukraine.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryskin, cited unpublished information that he said showed Poland’s desire to gain control of part of western Ukraine.

“According to information obtained by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working out plans to establish strict military and political control of Poland over its historical possessions in Ukraine,” Naryskin said in a rare statement released by the SVR.

Poland denied this claim and said it was disinformation spread by Moscow.

Recall that a few days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, namely on February 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin called the territories of Western Ukraine exclusively territories “captured and transferred” from Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Poland controlled some of the lands that are now part of Ukraine at various times in the past, most recently between the two world wars. Western Ukraine, including the city of Lvov, was absorbed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

The SVR, which took over much of the Soviet KGB’s foreign espionage duties after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, did not make its data public, and Reuters was unable to verify this claim.

According to Reuters