Roger Waters - Pink Floyd founding member at UN Security Council: Ukraine ‘invasion’ was ‘not unprovoked’

Roger Waters Photo: Getty Images

Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters spoke at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 8. The musician’s address was largely an anti-war broadside, as he condemned the for-profit military industrial complex and stressed the devastating toll of war, both on people and the environment.

As the subject of the meeting was Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Waters did eventually get around to that as well. Waters said about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: it was “not unprovoked.” He added, “So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms. There, that’s out of the way.”

These remarks about the war in Ukraine were far more subdued than some of the others Waters has made in the past, including in an interview with Rolling Stone. Last year, Waters said he believes his name is on a “kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government.”

In that same conversation, the singer shifted the blame from the ongoing war from Russia to NATO, suggesting that the organization essentially left Putin with no other choice but to invade Ukraine.

Elsewhere in his address to the UN, Waters made some linguistic choices that arguably reflected a pro-Russian bent, like referring to the “arming of the Kyiv regime by third parties.”

Positioning himself up as a voice for the “voiceless millions,” Waters said, “Thank you for hearing us today, we are many who do not share in the profits of the war industry. We do not willingly raise our sons and daughters to provide fodder for your canons. In our opinion, the only sensible course of action today is to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. No ifs, no buts, no ands. Not one more Ukrainian or Russian life is to be spent — they are all precious in our eyes.”

Over the past six months, Waters has also used his platform as a sounding board for scorching political takes. In August, he branded President Joe Biden a “war criminal” during a CNN broadcast and claimed he was directly “fueling the war in the Ukraine.”

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