MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Poland’s current activity on the Ukrainian track may indicate its intention to have a greater say in world affairs, in fact, to regain the glory of Rzeczpospolita, the board chairman of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the international discussion club Valdai, Andrey Bystritsky, said about Polish President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Kiev.
He suspects that Warsaw is keen to play a very large role in the space that emerged in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty organization.
"Poland remembers very well the days when Rzeczpospolita stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. In this sense, I don’t think that now it is going to annex or somehow pinch off Ukraine’s western part: the Carpathians and so on," he noted expert.
"I think that Poland’s real aim is to take over the whole of Ukraine. This is the idea," Bystritsky stressed. In other words, Warsaw is to "bring both Ukraine and Belarus into its orbit."
"Then Poland will gain great power as an actual leader of a large community of people," he explained. "This is a very important position in terms of controlling West-East trade and in terms of strategic positions."
On August 23, the Crimean Platform forum as held in Kiev by video link. The Polish president became the only Western leader to come to Kiev personally. In the Ukrainian capital, he held prolonged conversations with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, which received vast coverage in the Ukrainian media. Lately, Poland has been extremely active in its contacts with Ukraine, supporting Kiev in every possible way, supplying weapons, accommodating refugees and speaking out in support of Kiev on international platforms.