Former Polish president criticises Trump's behaviour during meeting with Zelenskyy
Lech Wałęsa, former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity movement, along with 39 other former Polish political prisoners, has written a letter to US President Donald Trump expressing their "concern" over the atmosphere of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The letter published on Wałęsa’s Facebook state that they watched the recording of Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy with "horror and disgust".
They emphasise that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during the conversation "reminded us of what we vividly recall from interrogations by the Security Service and courtroom trials in communist courts".
"Prosecutors and judges working on behalf of the all-powerful communist party police also told us that they held all the cards while we had none," they noted.
The letter’s authors expressed their "shock" that Trump and his team treated Zelenskyy in a similar manner.
They also stressed that they found it offensive to expect expressions of gratitude for US financial aid to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russia.
The signatories noted that gratitude should be directed towards Ukrainian soldiers "who are shedding their blood to defend the values of the free world".
"For over 11 years, they have been dying on the front in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which has been attacked by Putin’s Russia. We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolises the free world could fail to see this," the authors wrote.
They also reminded Trump of the US commitments under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which provided security assurances for Ukraine in exchange for relinquishing its Soviet-era nuclear weapons.
"These guarantees are unconditional: there is not a single word suggesting that such assistance should be considered an economic exchange," the signatories added.
Read this analysis by European Pravda editor Sergiy Sydorenko on what this agreement means for Kyiv and Washington
On 28 February, Zelenskyy left the White House ahead of schedule after a spat with Trump and JD Vance.
In response, Trump claimed that the Ukrainian president had "disrespected" the United States and that Zelenskyy was "not ready for peace".