Letter: ​President Volodymyr Zelensky is no dictator – but Vladimir Putin is

We must remember that Volodymyr Zelensky has been facing an aggressive Russian regime led by a real dictator, Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine’s elections are a year overdue and cannot be held when millions of people are being displaced and exiled.

Russia occupies a lot of Ukraine and rains down drones on a nightly basis. Can one canvass and campaign under such circumstances? Of course not.

A real dictator like Putin eliminates his opposition. He poisons his opponents, or they have a habit of falling out of windows in high rise buildings. His elections are a sham, and he is also guilty of serious war crimes not only in Ukraine but also in Syria, where Putin’s air force pummelled city after city to prop up Assad.

He is also involved in destabilising the Balkans and large swathes of Africa. His prisons are full unless the inmates are sent to the front in Ukraine to die.

To use the term dictator to describe president Zelensky only brings succour to the real dictator, Putin. I am awaiting president Trump’s criticism of Putin. So far Donald Trump’s silence on Russia’s behaviour has been deafening.

I feel sure that when he looks back on this period, Donald Trump will regret his description of Zelensky in such terms.

Lord (Reg) Empey, Ulster Unionist peer, Westminster