‘Isvestia’: SVR Chief Naryshkin calls Poland's claims to Lviv not unfounded

Lviv
Photo: TASS

Poland is not unreasonably eyeing Ukrainian Lviv. This was reported on February 13 by the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the head of the Russian Historical Society (RHS), Sergey Naryshkin, writes ‘Isvestia’.

"The most consistent claim to its so-called "eastern crosses" has always been made by Poland, which in the last century was dubbed the "hyena of Europe." The authorship of this term belongs to British Prime Minister Churchill. Now Poland is eyeing Lviv, and, in general, not without reason," he said during a roundtable discussion on the topic "From Kharkiv to Uzhgorod: the history of conflicts and territorial compromises" at the RIO House in Moscow.

Naryshkin recalled that Poland actively developed the city's territory before it was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939.

"Tens of thousands of retired Polish military men, the so-called siezadniki, were resettled there and received extensive land. This, in particular, explains the fierce dislike of Poles on the part of then and now Ukrainian nationalists", - recalled the director of the SVR.

At the same time, he said that the Ukrainian statehood would inevitably collapse. According to him, after the collapse of the USSR, the Ukrainian authorities focused on "personal enrichment at the expense of the people" instead of building their own statehood. In addition, he recalled that the Ukrainian SSR was formed only during the Soviet period and did not exist as a single administrative entity before that.

Earlier, on 3 February, the infoBRICS business daily wrote that tensions in Ukraine's relations with Poland, Hungary and Romania were growing, which could lead to serious geopolitical changes. It was specified that the above-mentioned countries would claim Ukrainian lands.

In November, the Russian SVR said that NATO plans to occupy the territory of Ukraine. It was specified that the UK, Romania, Poland and Germany would take part in the division of territories.

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