"I feel that tennis, from the start, could have done a little better to show everyone that tennis players were against the war," she said, denouncing "a lack of leadership" on the part of the WTA and ATP.
"I think they could do more to get that idea across and give their opinion and help us a little bit more in the locker room because the atmosphere was quite tense," she added.
The 21-year-old Pole believes that a general exclusion of Russian and Belarusian tennis players should have been decided at the time but that, now, such a decision would be "unfair".
"This is something that was mentioned at the beginning (of the invasion), tennis did not take this path, but now it would be quite unfair to do this to Russian and Belarusian players because this decision should have been made a year ago," Swiatek said.
"It's not their fault that they have this passport but, on the other hand, we all have a certain impact and I think that anything that could have helped stop the Russian aggression, we should have done it at the level of the decisions taken by the federations," said the player.
Swiatek also highlighted the courage of some Russian athletes, such as world No. 8 Daria Kasatkina, who publicly called for an end to the war.
"I really respect that because I think it's brave of Russian athletes to say this kind of thing, because their situation is very complicated," she admitted.
A week ago, the organizers of the Wimbledon tournament, which takes place in early July, announced that, unlike last year, Russian and Belarusian players could take part in the competition, but as "neutral" athletes, with a ban on expressing any support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Wimbledon has thus aligned itself with the policy adopted by other Grand Slam tournaments and wanted by the ATP and the WTA.
© 2023 AFP