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© Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik / KREFILE PHOTO: Putin says It was noted it would be good if Ukrainian politicians "thought about it and realized what is happening"
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Polish nationalists can't wait to seize western Ukraine.

"As for the governments of some of our neighbors, Poland, nationalist elements there dream of taking back their so-called historical territories, seizing the western territories that Ukraine gained as a result of a decision by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin following World War II," the president said at a meeting with the Human Rights Council.

He said "these territories were taken away from Poland and given to Soviet Ukraine."

"But of course, nationalist elements in Poland dream about taking these territories back to Poland and they will seek to do so, say what they will. We see this even from their literature, discussions, speeches," the president said. "That's what they are ultimately going to do, I don't have the slightest doubt about that."

"The only real guarantor of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine within its current borders could be Russia, which helped Ukraine to get these (Western - TASS) territories after World War II - by the decision of Stalin, of course," the head of state said.

"This is a matter for Ukrainian politicians. The ones of the future, of course. Current politicians, I don't think they understand much about this and they don't think about it, although some of them, as it seems to us, are already beginning to think," Putin said.

"Any increased involvement of their Western ally and neighbor in Ukrainian affairs today will ultimately be aimed at invading Ukrainian territories, the western part of Ukraine."

He said it would be good if Ukrainian politicians "thought about it and realized what is happening."

"But so be it, it's up to them," the president said.