‘We are shocked’: Americans in Sweden rally in support of Ukraine​on March 10, 2025 at 12:01 pm

The protesters outside the embassy on March 9th were waving Ukrainian flags and carrying placards with pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia slogans such as “USA stop Putin!”, “Ukrainian Values are Universal Values” and “We Americans stand with Ukraine and Democracy”.

“We’re a group of American citizens, there’s no organisation behind this, this is truly grassroots,” foreign policy analyst Eric Adamson, the organiser of the event, told The Local. “We’ve been watching on in horror the Trump administration’s decisions to end support to Ukraine. Military aid, intelligence sharing, these are all vital resources for Ukraine to defend itself.”

“America is so much more than the Trump administration,” he added. “We need to show Europe, we need to show Ukraine, that the American people still stand with Ukraine.”

President Trump’s decision to withdraw aid from Ukraine, his suggestion that European countries would not support the US and his moves to increasingly ally with Vladimir Putin’s Russia has led to speculations as to whether the US would support its Nato allies under Article 5.

Article 5 underlines the idea of collective defence, effectively committing all Nato states to protect each other in the case of an attack on one state.

“We believe in the ironclad responsibility of the United States and the commitment to Article 5,” Adamson said, “and we are as shocked as anybody else that you could put Article 5 into question. It’s not even a matter of a disinterested America, but an increasingly hostile America to European interests, European values, but most of all American values as well.”

Adamson believes that the situation is also “difficult” for US Embassy staff.

“I know many of the staff there. I know they have been committing their entire careers to expressing American values around the world. They are committed to the Transatlantic Alliance and I know this is as difficult for them as it is for us.”

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The US embassy recently removed a banner from the building’s facade which read “We Stand With Ukraine”, which Adamson said was not a decision made by Embassy staff themselves.

“It’s coming from the highest levels of the State Department and those closest to the Trump Administration,” he said. “I know it was a difficult thing for them to do, to take it down, and I hope to see it up again someday soon.”

Interview by The Local’s James Savage. Article by Becky Waterton.