Poland's speaker backs down from claim Putin proposed dividing Ukraine

Poland's parliamentary speaker Radoslaw Sikorski speaks during a media conference at the parliament in Warsaw October 21, 2014. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

WARSAW (Reuters) - The speaker of Poland's parliament, Radoslaw Sikorski, said on Tuesday he had mis-remembered when he told an interviewer that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed that Warsaw and Moscow occupy Ukraine and divide it between them.

In an interview with U.S. website Politico dated Oct. 19, Sikorski said that Putin had made the proposal to Donald Tusk, who at the time was Polish prime minister, during a 2008 meeting between the two leaders in Moscow.