'Gratitude belongs to Ukrainian soldiers': Lech Wałęsa, former Solidarity dissidents send letter to Trump

Wałęsa published the letter on Facebook.

“We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with fear and distaste. We consider your expectations regarding the expression of respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States to Ukraine, which is fighting Russia, to be insulting. Gratitude belongs to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front line for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s Russia. We do not understand how the leader of a country that is a symbol of the free world cannot see this,” Wałęsa and former Polish political prisoners addressed Trump.

The signatories expressed fear that the atmosphere of that conversation in the Oval Office reminded them of what they remember from Security Service interrogations and courtroom hearings in communist courts.

“Prosecutors and judges, acting at the behest of the all-powerful communist political police, also explained to us that they held all the cards, and we held none. They demanded that we stop our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people were suffering because of us,” Wałęsa wrote.

He added that the signatories were deprived of their freedom because they did not show gratitude to the authorities at the time, and that Trump in the White House treated Zelenskyy in a similar manner.

“The history of the 20th century shows that every time the United States wanted to keep its distance from democratic values and its European allies, it ended in a threat to the United States itself,” Wałęsa noted, emphasizing that a number of former American leaders understood this.

“Mr. President, material aid—military and financial—cannot be equated with the blood shed in the name of the independence and freedom of Ukraine, Europe, and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude belongs to those who make sacrifices of blood and freedom… We call on the United States to fulfill the guarantees it made together with Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which explicitly recorded an obligation to defend the inviolability of Ukraine’s borders in exchange for Ukraine surrendering its nuclear weapons stockpile,” the letter states.

The former Polish president and political prisoners emphasized that these guarantees are unconditional and that “there is not a single word about treating such aid as an economic transaction.”

Dispute in the Oval Office

• On February 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington for a working visit. During a press conference, a dispute broke out between Trump, Zelenskyy, and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.
• Later, it was reported that the joint press conference of Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump was canceled after the disagreement.
• Following the altercation in the White House, European leaders and U.S. politicians began expressing their support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
• White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt announced the U.S. government’s intention to halt financial military aid to Ukraine.