The 79-year-old English musician began his letter by writing: “My heart bleeds for you and all the Ukrainian and Russian families, devastated by the terrible war in Ukraine.” Referring to Zelenska’s interview with Laura Kunsberg broadcast this week on BBC News, Waters pointed to a statement where she said: “If support for Ukraine is strong, the crisis will be smaller.” The Pink Floyd co-founder disputed her statement, writing: “Hmmm? I guess that might depend on what you mean by “support for Ukraine”? “If by ‘support for Ukraine’ you mean that the West continues to supply arms to the armies of the Kiev government, I fear you may be gravely mistaken.” Waters added that “throwing fuel, in the form of weapons, into a firefight has never worked to shorten a war in the past, and it won’t work now,” since in this case, “most of the fuel is ( a ) being thrown into the fire by Washington DC, which is a relatively safe distance from the fire, and (b) because the ‘fuel throwers’ have already declared an interest in the war continuing for as long as possible.” Is this the life we really want? The singer suggested that “in order to achieve a different result”, instead of depending on the West for support, “maybe we need to look for a different path” and that path may lie in the “good intentions that were previously stated”. In the rest of the letter, Waters referred to promises made by the Ukrainian president during his 2019 election campaign. These included pledging “an end to the civil war in the east and peace in Donbas and partial autonomy in Donetsk and Luhansk” as well as “the ratification of the Minsk II agreement” which sought to secure a ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country. Screenplay of Roger Waters’ open letter (Roger Waters/Facebook) “One can only assume that your husband’s electoral politics did not sit well with certain political factions in Kyiv and that these factions convinced your husband to dramatically change course in disregard of the mandate of the people (sic),” Waters wrote. “Unfortunately, your old man agreed to these totalitarian, undemocratic rejections of the will of the Ukrainian people, and the forces of extreme nationalism lurking, maliciously, in the shadows, have been ruling Ukraine ever since. “They have also since crossed any red lines that were clearly set for years by your neighbors the Russian Federation and consequently they, the extreme nationalists, set your country on the road to it. devastating war”. Waters concluded his letter by asking Zelenska to help him “convince our leaders to stop the slaughter.” “Would it not be better to demand the implementation of your husband’s campaign promises and put an end to this deadly war?” asked. Russia is now six months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 when Vladimir Putin announced what he called a “special military operation” in a televised address to his citizens.
