RIA showed «evidence of the West's readiness to partition Ukraine», a visualization of Zhirinovsky's earlier statement

In a piece entitled «Former Rada MP displayed a Polish map showing a «partitioning of Ukraine»» RIA Novosti says:

«Former Rada deputy Ilya Kiva posted on his Telegram account a map of showing a partitioning of Ukraine which had been displayed on Poland's TVP1 television channel, stressing the gesture suggests that the West is willing to change the borders of the former Soviet republic.

«It's the map that had been displayed by Polish television. Everything we previously discussed and what the West is ready for,» Kiva wrote.

The former MP did not specify in what context the TV channel displayed the map.»

Well, let's help RIA and clarify when and in what context the Polish channel TVP1 displayed the map shown by RIA with the help of Kiva.

It took place in March 2014. The map, apparently drawn by the Polish TV channel's editors, illustrated a report devoted to one of the extravagant statements made by Vladimir Zhirinovsky's. He had proposed that Ukraine be divided among Russia, Poland, Hungary and Romania and suggested that Poland declare a referendum on the annexation of five Ukrainian regions: Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Rivne. News stories about this TV report and images of the map can be found, for example, on Romanian and Slovak (Hungarian-language) TV websites.

We should add that, according to RBC, Tomasz Nałęcz, adviser to then-Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, reacted to Zhirinovsky's proposal in the following manner:

«These utterings are a figment of a sick imagination. It is simply outrageous to suggest that Poland should participate in partitioning a friendly country and changing its borders.»

Nałęcz even suggested that Zhirinovsky's message be «analyzed by a psychiatrist».

Actually, that's all there is to say about «the West's willingness to change the borders of the former Soviet republic,» as RIA puts it.

Ilya Kiva is a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada who was also a member of the pro-Russian faction of the Opposition Platform For Life. On March 15, 2022, Kiva's parliamentary powers were terminated early based on his application, but he now claims he did not write one. In February, a few days before Russia attacked Ukraine, Kiva left Ukraine and settled in Spain; he says he has no intention to return in the foreseeable future.