Member of legendary rock band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, earlier this week drew widespread attention with his remarks on the war in Ukraine. Waters invited criticism while addressing the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday.

Waters was invited by Moscow to address the council. Ukraine and certain sections who support the Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s war on its neighbor lashed out at the Pink Floyd founder for ‘supporting Russia’.

Rogers told the UN: “The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation was illegal. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. Also the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not unprovoked. So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms.”

Following his statement, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, used one of Roger’s song’s lines to lash out at him: “How sad for his former fans to see him accepting the role of just a brick in the wall, a wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda”

Waters, meanwhile, without specifying, said that the West should stop arming Ukraine in order to stop the hostilities. He also said that the sensible course of action should be that no lives should further be lost in the ongoing war.

“Not one more Ukrainian or Russian life is to be spent. They are all precious in our eyes. The only thing the powers that be think we can all afford is perpetual war,” Rogers said.

The singer-songwriter has also called the American government a war criminal and accused US President Joe Biden of prolonging the war in Ukraine. He said Biden has the power to ensure all stakeholders pursue a diplomatic solution but instead he kept arming Ukraine prolonging the war.

Roger Waters drew controversy last year for a letter he wrote to Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. In his letter, Waters said that Zelesnky failed on his campaign promise where he said he would bring peace to Donbas.

“One can only assume that your husband’s electoral policies didn’t sit well with certain political factions in Kyiv and that those factions persuaded your husband to diametrically change course ignoring the peoples’ mandate,” Rogers wrote. Zelenska replied to his letter and said Waters was asking the wrong President regarding peace.

Waters, shortly after, wrote to Vladimir Putin, the same year, the Russian President, and said to him that if he willed he could stop the war. He also said that there are ‘hawks’ on both sides of the Atlantic who will make huge profits if the war wages on and if Putin decides to invade the rest of Europe.

Water told Putin that it would help if Putin comes out and says he wants the war to end. He said it would also help if the Russian President admits that his security concerns are limited to the well-being of the Russians living in eastern Ukraine.

However, Waters’ stance was also misunderstood because of his support for Palestine, which many on the left-wing and western media felt was anti-Semitic in nature.

Waters has advocated for equal rights for Palestinians and has called Israel an ‘apartheid state’. Israel has condemned Waters for his stance and he has said that Israel is inflaming tensions so that Palestinians fight back in the form of an ‘intifada’ which will allow Israel to clamp down on Palestinians and their rights.

“Israel has a right to exist as long as it is a true democracy, as long as no group, religious or ethnic, enjoys more human rights than any other. But unfortunately that is exactly what is happening in Israel and Palestine. The government says that only Jewish people should enjoy certain rights. So it can’t be described as democratic,” Waters said earlier.

For his stance, his former bandmate Billy Gilmour also called him an anti-Semite as he retweeted a tweet by his wife Polly Samson, which also called Rogers an anti-Semite.

“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense,” Samson tweeted.

Waters in his response said he entirely refuses the allegations levelled against him.

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