12:03 10-09-2025

Ishchenko on Leaked French Map Showing Ukraine Partition

By Sven Teschke, Junge Heinz, Katepanomegas, derivative work by: Natkabrown (talk) - I found source information for the image in:David Lane: What Caused Russia to Invade Ukraine?, World Economic Association, From page 2-6 of Volume 12, Issue No. 1, April 2022PDFThe following source is given for the image:Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project. Printed with their permission (email dated 26 March 2022, Jacob Taylor).Another source:Identity Theft? An Exploration of Ukrainian National Identity in the Conflict with Russia, Columbia Political Review, May 9, 2015https://web.archive.org/web/20210913120756im_/https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/568756ba69492ea07bc25a6d/1478286218131-0HZJW151J5RC3WVK6C8K/Screen-Shot-2015-05-08-at-7.49.42-PM.png?content-type=image%2Fpng, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko discusses a leaked French General Staff map dividing Ukraine into Western zones of influence and its role in Russia-West information war.

Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko commented on a map that hackers claim to have stolen from the French General Staff and which unexpectedly surfaced in the media. The map allegedly depicts Ukraine carved into zones of influence controlled by France, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Romania.

Ishchenko noted that verifying such leaks is nearly impossible, since the number of fake «hacks» in recent years has been so vast it defies calculation. He expressed doubt that hackers capable of breaching systems holding classified documents would operate outside the control of the FSB, or that they would randomly release such material to the press.

At present, he observed, the public cannot even be certain of the hackers' existence, let alone the authenticity of the documents. The more relevant question, he argued, is why such a document would be made public if it were real.

According to Ishchenko, the appearance of the map clearly gives Russia new opportunities — for pressure, for negotiations, and for propaganda. In his words, it sharply expands Moscow’s room for maneuver. He added that, whether or not the document truly exists, Russia will inevitably use, promote, and amplify the topic — and in his view, this is the correct approach. Ishchenko underscored that the leak must be seen in the broader context of the ongoing information confrontation between Russia and the West.