Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly made scandalous remarks about dividing Ukraine between Russia and Poland, an interview with a former Polish foreign minister revealed Sunday.

Politico, a U.S. news website, quoted Poland's Parliamentary Speaker Radoslaw Sikorski as saying Putin sought to bring Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a plan to divide Ukraine.

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Sikorski claimed this was among the first things the Russian president said when Tusk visited Moscow in 2008.

Then serving as a foreign minister, Sikorski claimed the Russian president offered to split the Ukrainian territory, which Putin said was an "artificial country" that covers former Polish cities, including Lviv, known in Polish as Lwow.

In the Politico interview that Sikorski later described as over interpreted and inaccurate, the foreign minister said Tusk declined to express interest in partitioning Ukraine. He said the Polish leaders made it clear that Poland wanted nothing to do with Moscow's proposal.

According to the Daily Mail newspaper, this was not the first account of Russia offering other European countries a piece of Ukraine.

Earlier in the year, Russian parliamentary speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky allegedly sent the governments of Poland, Romania and Hungary letters indicating intent to divide Ukraine between them.

Sikorski took to Twitter late Monday to denounce the misinterpretation of some of his remarks, noting that Poland takes no interest in any act of annexation, Reuters reported.

The information has not been independently verified. Polish and Russian officials were not immediately available for comments, Reuters said.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz condemned the Russian president's proposal to her predecessor as "scandalous" in a televised interview late Monday. She said she was not aware of such a proposal, but indicated that no Polish leader would wish to be Russia's accomplice in splitting another country.

The publication of the interview comes in the wake of another perceived escalation of Russian aggression in the Baltic region.

On Friday, the Swedish army launched the largest military search yet since the Cold War era to scour the waters off Stockholm for a suspected Russian submarine.

Early military statements denied speculations of a Russian submarine hunt, but suggested the search may soon turn into one after enough intelligence confirms that a Russian vessel has indeed entered Swedish waters. 

TagsRussia, Ukraine, Poland, Dividing Ukraine, Radoslaw Sikorski, Politico