Lech Walesa's Letter to Donald Trump
Lech Walesa, the heroic leader of Solidarnosc, and dozens of former Polish political prisoners released the text of this open letter, expressing "dismay and disgust" at the way the White House treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski. To Trump's bargaining and demands for gratitude, they put on the scales the blood's sacrifice that Ukrainians are offering to the entire world for truth and justice. Walesa and the other personalities remind the United States that they signed the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, with which the US and Great Britain committed to defend Ukraine's borders, in exchange for the surrender of its arsenal of nuclear weapons. After reading this letter, one still can continue having faith in human greatness.
Dear Mr. President,
We watched with dismay and disgust your conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We find it offensive that you claim to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They are the ones who, for more than 11 years, have been dying on the front lines in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland attacked by Putin's Russia.
We do not understand how the leader of a country that is a symbol of the free world could not realize this.
Our horror was also aroused by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the atmosphere we are familiar with in the interrogations of the Security Service and in the courtrooms of communist courts. The prosecutors and judges appointed by the all-powerful communist political police also explained to us that they held all the cards and we had none. They asked us to cease our activities, claiming that thousands of innocent people were suffering because of us. They deprived us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the authorities and show gratitude to them. We are shocked that you treated President Volodymyr Zelenski in such a way.
The history of the 20th century shows that every time the United States wanted to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ended up endangering itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this, deciding to bring the United States into World War I in 1917. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this, deciding after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the war to defend America would be fought not only in the Pacific, but also in Europe, in alliance with the countries attacked by the Third Reich. Let us remember that without President Ronald Reagan and the American financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan was aware of the suffering of millions of people enslaved in Soviet Russia and the countries it conquered, including thousands of political prisoners who paid with their freedom for their sacrifice in defense of democratic values. His greatness lay, among other things, in the fact that he unhesitatingly called the USSR the "Evil Empire" and gave it a decisive battle. We won, and a statue of President Ronald Reagan stands today in Warsaw, in front of the US Embassy.
Mr. President, material aid - military and financial - cannot be equivalent to the bloodshed 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 by money. Gratitude is due to those who make the sacrifice of blood and freedom. For us in Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime of Soviet Russia, this is obvious.
We demand that the United States honor the guarantees it gave with the United Kingdom in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which explicitly included a commitment to defend the inviolability of Ukraine's borders in exchange for the surrender of its nuclear weapons arsenal. These guarantees are unconditional: there is not a single word about considering this aid as an economic exchange.
Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, leader of Solidarity, President of the Third Republic of Poland
Marek Beylin, former political prisoner, publisher of independent publications
Seweryn Blumsztajn, former political prisoner, member of the Workers' Defense Committee Teresa Bogucka, former political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition and Solidarity Grzegorz Boguta, former political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition, independent publisher
Marek Borowik, former political prisoner, independent publisher
Bogdan Borusewicz, former political prisoner, leader of Solidarity in Gdańsk
Zbigniew Bujak, former political prisoner, leader of the Solidarity underground in Warsaw Władysław Frasyniuk, former political prisoner, leader of the Solidarity underground in Wrocław
Andrzej Gincburg, former political prisoner, Solidarity underground activist
Ryszard Grabarczyk, former political prisoner, Solidarity activist
Aleksander Janiszewski, former political prisoner, Solidarity activist
Piotr Kapczyński, former political prisoner, democratic opposition activist
Marek Kossakowski, former political prisoner, independent journalist
Krzysztof Król, former political prisoner, independence activist
Jarosław Kurski, former political prisoner, democratic opposition activist
Barbara Labuda, former political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarność movement
Bogdan Lis, former political prisoner, leader of the underground Solidarność movement in Gdańsk
Henryk Majewski, former political prisoner, Solidarność activist
Adam Michnik, ex. political prisoner, democratic opposition activist, publisher of independent publications
Sławomir Najnigier, former political prisoner, Solidarity activist in the underground
Piotr Niemczyk, former political prisoner, journalist and printer of underground publications, Stefan Konstanty Niesiołowski, former political prisoner, independence activist
Edward Nowak, former political prisoner, Solidarity underground activist
Wojciech Onyszkiewicz, former political prisoner, member of the Workers' Defense Committee, Solidarity activist
Antoni Pawlak, former political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition and the Solidarity underground
Sylwia Poleska-Peryt, former political prisoner, democratic opposition activist
Krzysztof Pusz, former political prisoner, underground activist Solidarity
Ryszard Pusz, former political prisoner, activist of the Solidarity underground movement, Jacek Rakowiecki, former political prisoner, activist of the Solidarity underground movement Andrzej Seweryn, former political prisoner, actor, director of the Polish Theatre in Warsaw Witold Sielewicz, former political prisoner, printer of independent publications
Henryk Sikora, former political prisoner, Solidarity activist
Krzysztof Siemieński, former political prisoner, journalist and printer of underground publications
Grażyna Staniszewska, former political prisoner, leader of the Solidarity movement in the Beskidy region
Jerzy Stępień, former political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition
Joanna Szczęsna, former political prisoner, editor of the Solidarity underground press Ludwik Turko, ex6 political prisoner, underground activist of Solidarność
Mateusz Wierzbicki, former political prisoner, printer and publicist of independent publications
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