Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of breaking his election promises and blaming him for the war in Ukraine. That’s what he wrote on Facebook in an open letter to Selenskyj’s wife Olena Selenska. If Zelenskyy, as originally promised, gives autonomy to the separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk and implements the Minsk-2 agreement, he could end the conflict immediately.
With that, Waters was responding to a Interview with Selenska. If support for Ukraine is strong, the crisis will be shorter, the BBC’s First Lady said. Waters was particularly offended by this sentence, because in his opinion arms deliveries would only prolong the war. “Adding fuel to the fire of battle in the form of weapons has never worked to shorten a war in the past,” Waters wrote.
Waters sees the responsibility for ending the war with Zelenskyj. Because he started the 2019 election with the promise to end the “civil war” in eastern Ukraine. Rogers accused Zelenskyy of radically changing course after the election. Instead, Ukraine would be ruled today by “forces of extreme nationalism.” These nationalists had crossed red lines that Russia had long insisted on, triggering the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Ukraine in his speech before the attack denied the right to exist Waters, on the other hand, did not mention a word about Russian nationalists who supported the war.
Selenska rejected Waters’ suggestions. “It is Russia that has attacked Ukraine, destroying cities and killing civilians. Ukrainians are defending their country and their children’s future,” she wrote on Twitter. “If we give up, we won’t exist tomorrow. If Russia gives up, the war will end. You had better ask the Russian President for peace. Not Ukraine.”
It is Russia which invaded ??, destroys cities and kills civilians. Ukrainians defend their land and their children’s future.
If we give up — we will not exist tomorrow. If ?? gives up — war will be over.@rogerwaters, you’d better ask RF’s President for peace. Emergency Ukraine.
— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) September 6, 2022
It is not the first time that Waters has taken a stand against the West in the Ukraine conflict. In early August, in an interview with CNN journalist Michael Smerconish, he said that US President Joe Biden was “stoking the fire in Ukraine.” If he wanted, Biden could end the war immediately. He later complained that the interview had been cut unfairly.