Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin (Business Insider)

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin relayed to Sputnik on Wednesday plans by Poland to hold referendums in the western part of Ukraine to validate its claims to Ukrainian territories.

"In order to ensure the legitimacy of the planned territorial accessions, the Polish leadership decided to use Russia's successful experience of returning ancestral territories by holding referendums on them," Naryshkin stated, adding that Polish special services "leaked" to the Ukrainian media information regarding alleged plans in the Lvov region of a referendum to join Poland.

He further added that Polish President Andrzej Duda "instructed the specialized services to prepare an official justification for Polish claims to Western Ukraine in a short time," and clarified that "the reaction of key regional players and ordinary citizens is supposed to be carefully monitored and analyzed,"

The official warned against Poland's drawing of false analogies with history "full of examples of clashes between Polish and Ukrainian nationalists."

The Volhynia massacre of 1943 is the point which Naryshkin is referring to, which according to Polish authorities as cited by Naryshkin, are testament to the involvement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the genocide of the Polish people.