Poland tries to take over western Ukraine, says Russia.

  Russia says that Poland is trying to take over western Ukraine in the future under the guise of building a joint military body with the former Soviet republic. Russia also says that Warsaw is becoming a key part of US policy against Russia. In a statement on Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Poland, a strong supporter of Ukraine in the war with Russia, plans to form a joint Polish-Ukrainian military unit, ostensibly for security reasons but with the real goal of taking over western Ukraine. During a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry's board, he said, "There are plans to regularly create a so-called Polish-Ukrainian connection, ostensibly to make sure the safety of western Ukraine, but in reality, to eventually take over this land."

Shoigu said that Washington's policy against Russia is now mostly carried out through Poland. The Russian defense minister also said that Poland has said it wants to reach its goal of building "the strongest army" in Europe. To do this, Poland has started buying a lot of arms from the US, the UK, and South Korea. Shoigu also said that "threats to Russia's military security have increased many-fold in the west and north-west strategic areas." He also said that Moscow sees the future membership of Finland and Sweden in the US-led NATO military alliance as a serious factor that could make things worse. The Russian minister also said that Finland could host NATO troops and offensive weapons that could hit important targets deep in the northwestern parts of Russia.

Shoigu said that more NATO military equipment and attack weapons that could hit important targets in northwestern Russia from a long distance could be stationed in Finland. The Kremlin says that the West and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine because they give the country modern weapons and military equipment. They also say that NATO weapons are "legitimate targets" for their military. Moscow has warned many times that giving the Ukrainian forces more arms and military equipment from the West would stop peace talks, make the war last longer, and make things worse for the Ukrainian people.