Polish parliamentary speaker Radoslaw Sikorski says that in 2008 Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to Poland's then-prime minister that they divide Ukraine between themselves.
Sikorski, who until September served as foreign minister, told the U.S. "Politico" website that Putin made the proposal during Prime Minister Donald Tusk's visit to Moscow in 2008.
Sikorski was quoted as saying in the interview, dated October 19, "He wanted us to become participants in this partition of Ukraine...This was one of the first things that Putin said to my prime minister, Donald Tusk, when he visited Moscow."
According to Sikorski, who accompanied Tusk on his trip to Moscow, Tusk did not reply to Putin's suggestion.
Following the annexation of Crimea in March, Russian parliamentary speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky sent a letter to the governments of Poland, Romania, and Hungary, proposing a joint division of the country.