This month's feature story

FEATURE

Wa

łę

sa, Democracy Advocates,

Shocked by Disrespect for Zelenskyy

WARSAW — In a letter to President Donald Trump, former president of Poland, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and democracy champion Lech Wałęsa, and scores of other former political prisoners in Poland, expressed their “horrible and disgusting” feelings about Trump’s treatment of Ukraine’s president in the White House. In the letter, they tell Trump it was disrespectful that he expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express gratitude and respect for the material support the United States has provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

“Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed blood in defense of the values of the free world. They are the ones who have been dying on the front lines,” they said.

To end the conflict, the White House has called for Zelenskyy to be more receptive to possible compromises.

Wałęsa shared the message and a photo of himself with Trump on Facebook. Wałęsa and 38 other former democracy activists who were imprisoned by Poland’s Moscow-backed post-World War II communist regime — including Adam Michnik, Bogdan Lis, Seweryn Blumsztajn, and Władysław Frasyniuk —signed the letter.

“We were also terrified by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the one we remember well from interrogations by the Security Service and from the courtrooms in communist courts,” they wrote.

“Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the omnipotent communist political police, also explained to us that they had all the cards in their hands, and we had none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people were suffering because of us. They deprived us of freedom and civil rights because we did not agree to cooperate with the authorities and did not show them gratitude. We are shocked that you treated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a similar way,” they wrote.

Starting in 1980, Wałęsa spearheaded Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement that nine years later led to the peaceful ouster of communism from Poland and inspired other countries to shed Moscow’s domination.