Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk (L) greets Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Westerplatte, September 1, 2009, during ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk (L) greets Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Westerplatte, September 1, 2009, during ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Reuters

Russia it seemed had its sights on invading Ukraine as early as 2008, Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland's ex-foreign minister, said.

Politico, a US political Magazine, quoted Sikorski, who served as foreign minister from 2007 to 2014, that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in 2008 to then Polish prime minister Donald Tusk that they divide Ukraine among themselves since the latter is just "is an artificial country." Tusk was then visiting Moscow.

The article, titled "Putin's Coup," further quoted Sikorski, presumed to be present between the meeting of the two leaders, as saying that Mr Putin told the former Polish prime minister that "Lwow is a Polish city and why don't we just sort it out together."

The interview with U.S. website Politico was dated Oct 19. Sikorski said the partition of Ukraine was "one of the first things" the Russian leader immediately relayed to the ex-Polish prime minister.

Sikorski said Tusk didn't reply to Mr Putin's suggestions. It wasn't clear if he didn't reply because Tusk knew their talks were being recorded or that he wasn't sold on the incredulous idea. Sikorski, however, reportedly made it clear to Politico that Poland was never interested in reneging its former hold on Ukraine, nor that it has any participation in what Russia is doing now over it.

"We made it very, very clear to them - we wanted nothing to do with this," Sikorski, current Marshal of the Sejm, or the lower house of the Polish Parliament, said. Parts of today's western Ukraine, including major cities Lwow, known as Lviv in Ukraine, used to be under Poland's territory before World War Two.

Mr Putin's desire to annex Crimea slowly started to materialize, ultimately sending alarm signals when the Russian leader started visiting Russian bikers' festivals on the peninsula, presumably to "ran calculations on what provinces would be profitable to grab." Among those lands deemed profitable were Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa, all located in southeastern Ukraine.

The final trigger that eventually concretised Russia's incursion into Ukraine came when Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine's former president who was ousted in February 2014, signed the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement. "And I think he told him: 'Don't sign the Association Agreement; otherwise we'll seize Crimea.' That's why he cracked," Sikorski said.

This is not the first time that Poland was mentioned with its support being sought by Russia for its planned partitioning of Ukraine. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian parliamentary speaker, had earlier written the governments of Poland, Romania and Hungary, laying a proposal of jointly dividing proposing Ukraine.