Roger Waters, ex-musician from Pink Floyd, will be present at Wednesday's United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine which was requested by Russia, the UN Source told on Tuesday.
"Tomorrow will be present Roger Waters. The topic of the meeting will be the peaceful settlement of the crisis around Ukraine in the context of increasing Western arms deliveries to this country," the UN source said.
The UN Security Council discussed Ukraine on February 6 at the request of France and Ecuador. There will also be a meeting on February 24 held at the ministerial level, marking exactly one year since Russia's special operation began.
Pink Floyd was one of the most popular music groups in the 1980s. Waters left the group in 1985 because of differences among its members. In the past, Waters has attended protests supporting freeing Assange. Some US politicians have also criticized Waters for accusing President Joe Biden of fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia Asks Pink Floyd's Roger Waters To Speak At UN On Arms Shipments To Ukraine
Russia has asked Roger Waters, co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd, to speak to the UN Security Council on February 8 at a meeting to discuss the delivery of weapons to Ukraine. Waters was criticized by supporters of Ukraine when he published an open letter in September arguing against the Western supply of weapons to Kyiv.
"Let's see what he will say. He has a position and you will hear it tomorrow," said Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia. The Security Council has met dozens of times since Russia invaded Ukraine but has been unable to take any action because Russia has veto power.
Waters has been under fire by supporters of Ukraine for supporting Russia, after he shared a letter written to the Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on his website last September. He also recently spoke with a German newspaper, shared by Waters on his site, where he voiced controversial views on Israel, Putin, and Russia. He also said he was “really, really sad” that his former bandmates recorded a protest song with Ukrainian musician Andrij Chlywnjuk.
Among those to denounce Waters is his former Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour. On Monday, Gilmour reposted a tweet by his wife Polly Samson — who wrote several of the band’s tracks — that denounced Waters’ support of Russia.
“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” wrote Samson on Twitter. “Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.” Gilmour quote-tweeted her post, and wrote, “Every word demonstrably true.”
Last year, Waters also spoke with Rolling Stone about being on a “kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government.” During the interview, Waters suggested that NATO is responsible for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine but positioned that his advocating for Palestine is partially rooted in his belief that some Jewish people in the U.S. and U.K. are responsible for the actions of Israel, “particularly because they pay for everything.”
In August, 2022, Russia’s mission to the United Nations sent a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres last month asking him to address Myrotvorets, a notorious Kiev-based Internet resource with suspected links to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs which publishes the personal information of individuals deemed guilty of various “anti-Ukrainian” offenses.
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters’ name and photo have been spotted on Myrotvorets, with the rock legend accused of spreading “anti-Ukrainian propaganda,” challenging the country’s territorial integrity, and “participating in attempts to legalize Crimea’s annexation by Russia.”
The website lists a series of statements Waters has made in interviews about Crimea, the US State Department’s documented role in the February 2014 Maidan coup d’état in Kiev, his characterizations of Russia and Russians as "brave, steadfast and unyielding," and the demonization of Russia by the West. The site also provides screenshots of a 2018 interview Waters gave to Russian media.
“Myrotvorets asks law enforcement agencies to consider this publication as a statement on this person’s commission of deliberate acts against Ukraine’s national security, against peace, human security and international law and order, as well as other offenses,” the page states.
Waters garnered headlines earlier this month after schooling CNN anchor Michael Smerconish on the causes of the Ukraine crisis after slamming “war criminal” US President Joe Biden for “fueling the fire in Ukraine.”
“Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?” Waters asked. Challenged by Smerconish, who accused the rocker of victim-blaming, Waters responded by suggesting that the conflict really started when NATO broke its promise to Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev not to expand the alliance eastward.
“I would suggest to you, Michael, that you go away and read a bit more, and then try to figure out what the United States would do if the Chinese were putting nuclear-armed missiles into Mexico and Canada,” Waters said.
Created in 2014 on the initiative of former aid to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko, Myrotvorets gained notoriety almost immediately after several of the "enemies of Ukraine" listed on the site were assassinated, among them Ukrainian writer Oles Buzina, ex-lawmaker Ukrainian Oleg Kalashnikov, and Italian freelance photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli. Some of the entries on the so-called "enemies" include detailed personal information, including addresses and phone numbers. Others, like that of Waters, only feature general information already publicly available elsewhere.
Myrotvorets features thousands of names, including Ukrainian and foreign journalists, politicians, officials and businessmen, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Russian talk show host Vladimir Solovyov, and Sputnik and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, US ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Syrian President Bashar Assad. The resource also includes the names of more than 300 children, and hundreds of Hungarian-Ukrainians charged with illegally obtaining Hungarian citizenship.
Last month, a spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres assured that a letter sent by Russia urging him to address the notorious neo-Nazi website “will be studied.” Journalists, human rights groups, and the Russian Foreign Ministry have spent years calling for the website to be shut down.
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