Polish Dissidents Condemn Trump’s Treatment of Zelensky, Compare It to Communist-Era Trials

Polish freedom icon Lech Walesa and approximately 40 other former dissidents criticized US President Donald Trump for his recent confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, comparing the US president’s actions to “communist courtrooms.” 

In an open letter, they expressed “horror and disgust” about Trump’s accusations that Zelensky lacked gratitude for American aid to Ukraine. They said that gratitude is owed to the “heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed blood in defense of the values of the free world.” 

“The atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the hearings by the Security Service and in the communist courtrooms,” former Polish president Walesa and fellow dissidents wrote.

“We find your expectations of respect and gratitude for the material aid provided by the United States to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russia, offensive,” they wrote Trump.

Walesa is feted as an icon of freedom as he led a 1980 shipyard workers’ strike, forcing the then-authorities to recognize the communist bloc’s first and only free trade union, Solidarity.

In 1981, after martial law was imposed, he and dozens of other leading dissidents were arrested. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

After the fall of communism, in 1990, Walesa became Poland’s first democratically elected president since World War II.

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