Nikolai Starikov is Russian writer, political activist and influential public intellectual. For a wider introduction see here.

Right or wrong, he is an indicator of what thousands or millions of Russians believe.

This article originally appeared at author's blog. It was translated by J.Hawk at Fort Russ

As someone correctly realized already in ancient times, “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”! They were addressing the inhabitants of Troy, but it also applies to the citizens of contemporary Ukraine. The current Ukrainian government’s “support” by Poland is conditioned by Warsaw’s desire to catch a big “territorial” fish in the muddy waters of internal conflict in Ukraine. We are talking about nothing less than five entire regions of Western Ukraine. They are the Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Tarnopol, Volyn, and Rovne Regions, which once used to be part of the Polish state.

These territories cannot be taken away as long as Ukraine is a strong, sovereign state. Therefore ask yourself a question—is Poland interested in the weakening of Ukraine? Yes. Is Poland interested in promoting lawlessness on Ukrainian lands? Very.

The Poles are splitting Ukraine into pieces together with the Americans. The former need “muddy water”, the latter a military conflict and tension on Russia’s borders. Their interests fully coincide. Therefore one should not marvel at the statements by a Polish politician who said that the “unidentified snipers” were unleashed on the Maidan by Ukraine’s “Polish friends.”

This is what we talked about on the Sputnik Radio:

Opinion: The Poles will remember the Volhyn Massacre only after they retrieve Lvov

The Europarliament deputy and presidential candidate Korwin-Mikke made several controversial statements in Polish media. For example, he said that the snipers who killed 53 people on the Kiev Maidan in February 2014 were trained in Poland. According to Korwin-Mikke, Warsaw undertook these steps in order to “earn Washington’s favor.” Korwin-Mikke made one more interesting statement, when he said that he’d like to see Ukraine independent, but also as weak as possible.

According to Starikov, Poland will not abandon its plans to re-annex Ukraine’s territory so as to increase own size and influence. This is what Poland is fighting for today.

“The Polish politician did not say the whole truth. He let it slip that Poland needs weak Ukraine, but did not say why. Ukrainian nationalists forget that in Poland the nationalists are Polish, and that they remember perfectly well that part of the current territory of Ukraine, in particular Lvov, used to be part of Poland, and prior to that part of Austria-Hungary but mainly inhabited by Poles. Therefore when the Ukrainian nationalists destroyed the existing status quo inside Ukraine, they launched the process of destruction of their own state. That Ukraine which we once knew is no longer,” Starikov said on Sputnik Radio.

In his opinion, the only question is what form the break-up and liquidation of that state will take.

“Russia is against a break-up, in order to ensure Ukraine returns in its entirety to its historical place as part of the Russian civilization, while the Poles need something else to happen. The Poles want to fragment Ukraine, break it into parts, in order to swallow up the Lvov region, therefore the weaker the Ukrainian state, the more advantageous the situation is for Poland. The Poles temporarily “forgot” about the Volhyn Massacre, but they will remember it as soon as they manage to retake Lvov,” Starikov believes.