MORE than 100 people turned out this evening to protest outside the US consulate in Edinburgh.
Politicians, students, trade union representatives, and members of the public gathered on Regent Terrace for an emergency rally against Donald Trump's recent actions.
The US president's treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his increasingly pro-Russian rhetoric, and his approach to negotiations were all highlighted at the demonstration.
Speakers included SNP councillor Graham Campbell, Greens MSP Ross Greer, author Jen Stout, and Unison's Tracy Miller, as well as Ukrainians living and studying in Scotland.
The demonstration, organised by Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland and branded an "emergency rally", saw around 100 people come together wearing Ukrainian flags and holding signs that read “Trump has missed", and "Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine".
When asked why the rally was being branded an emergency demonstration, Taras Harasym, a Ukrainian who studies in Edinburgh, told The National: "Because everything that is happening in the US right now, it feels outrageous.
"I feel that it is important to understand that the US is one of the, if not the most powerful country in the world, and in some way responsible for negotiations with Russia.
"What they're trying to do now, they are not even allowing us to be at the table, and that's the point where I feel disgust because a country's fate and future cannot be decided without its opinion, without its people, without its idea and culture in mind."
He added: "I've been talking to a lot of Americans who I met here in Edinburgh or I just know online, and quite a few of them apologised to me and I told them, you don't have to apologise.
"They are as supportive as they've ever been.
"But the US government on the other side, they follow their own interests, and I can kind of understand that. They have their own stuff to sort out, but from my perspective, with our country being at war and it being one of the biggest hit on the world economy, and world peace – the US cannot allow this to happen.
"They cannot allow Russia to just do whatever they want. They cannot say that they are a country of freedom.
"They cannot be land of freedom when they allow this to happen, when they follow Russian propaganda."
Greens MSP Greer called for everyone to write to their MP "and say that you expect the UK Government to close down" the Seapeak Maritime shipping firm.
The Glasgow company has been accused of helping Russian President Vladimir Putin fund his ongoing war in Ukraine by exporting the country’s gas around Europe.
Greer told the crowd: "This one particular [company] based in Glasgow is crucial to the Russian war effort, because the Russian war effort is funded in a very large part by Russian exports of gas, specifically liquefied natural gas."
"A third of Russia's exporting gas is made possible [by Seapeak]", Greer said.
"We have again asked the UK Government to sanction Seapeak and to close its operations.
"There is no space in this country for any company that continues to trade with Russia and that continues to make the Russian war effort possible.
"It is time for Seapeak to go."
The protest came after last week’s confrontation between Trump and Ukrainian president Zelenskyy at the White House.
The US president has since used a wide-ranging speech in Congress to say he had received a letter from the Ukrainian leader saying Kyiv is ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington “at any time”.
The Ukrainian president earlier said it is “time to make things right” with Trump after the fractious meeting in the Oval Office and the US decision to suspend military aid to Kyiv.
