Roger Waters begs Olena Zelenska to “stop the slaughter” in new open letter
Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has penned an open letter to Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, in which he urges her and her husband to “stop the slaughter” and work towards a ceasefire agreement with Russia. This would mean Ukraine relieving control over two eastern regions of its territory.
Waters, now 79 years old, began by expressing his sympathies, writing: “My heart bleeds for you and all the Ukrainian and Russian families, devastated by the terrible war in Ukraine.” However, he wasted no time in raising his concerns about some comments Olena made during a recent interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Zelenska was quoted as saying: “If support for Ukraine is strong, the crisis will be shorter.” In his letter, Waters seemed reluctant to agree. “Hmmm? I guess that might depend on what you mean by ‘support for Ukraine,” he wrote. “If by ‘support for Ukraine’ you mean the west continuing to supply arms to the Kyiv government’s armies, I fear you may be tragically mistaken.”
Waters went on to argue that “throwing fuel, in the form of armaments, into a firefight, has never worked to shorten a war in the past, and it won’t work now.” He noted how “most of the fuel is (a) being thrown into the fire from Washington DC, which is at a relatively safe distance from the conflagration, and (b) because the ‘fuel throwers’ have already declared an interest in the war going on for as long as possible.”
Waters then suggested an alternative course of action: “In order to achieve a different outcome,” instead of seeking support from the West, “We may have to seek a different route,” a route that he believes should feature the realisation of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s “previously stated good intentions”.
The musician then referred to the promises the Ukrainian president made during his 2019 election campaign, which included a vow to “end the civil war in the east and bring peace to the Donbas and partial autonomy to Donetsk and Luhansk” as well as “ratify the Minsk-II agreement,” an early attempt to secure a ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists in the east.
Read the full statement below.
Roger Waters open letter:
Dear Mrs Zelenska,
My heart bleeds for you and all the Ukrainian and Russian families, devastated by the terrible war in Ukraine. I’m in Kansas City, USA. Iread an article on BBC.com apparently taken from an interview you have already recorded for a program called Sunday with Laura Kuenssburg which broadcasted on the BBC on September 4th.
BBC.com quotes you as saying that if support for Ukraine is strong the crisis will be shorter. Hmmm? I guess that might depend on what you mean by “support for Ukraine?” If by “support for Ukraine,” you mean the West continuing to supply arms to the Kiev government’s armies, I fear you may be tragically mistaken. Throwing fuel, in the form of armaments, into a firefight, has never worked to shorten a war in the past, and it won’t work now, particularly because, in this case, most of the fuel is (a) being thrown into the fire from Washington DC, which is at a relatively safe distance from the conflagration, and (b) because the “fuel throwers” have already declared an interest in the war going on for as long as possible.
People like you and me actually want peace in Ukraine, don’t want the outcome to be that you have to fight to the last Ukrainian life – and possibly even, if the worst comes to the worst, to the last human life.
If we, instead, wish to achieve a different outcome we may have to seek a different route and that route may lie in your husband’s previously stated good intentions.
Yes, I mean the platform upon which he so laudably ran for the office of President of Ukraine, the platform upon which he won his historic landslide victory in the democratic election in 2019.
He stood on the election platform of the following promises.
To end the civil war in the East and bring peace to the Donbas and partial autonomy to Donetsk and Luhansk.
And to ratify and implement the rest of the body of the Minsk 2 agreements.
One can only assume that your husband’s electoral policies didn’t sit well with certain political factions in Kiev and that those factions persuaded your husband to diametrically change course ignoring the people’s mandate. Sadly, your old man agreed to those totalitarian, anti-democratic dismissals of the will of the Ukrainian people, and the forces of extreme nationalism that had lurked, malevolent, in the shadows, have, since then, ruled the Ukraine. They have, also since then, crossed any number of red lines that had been set out quite clearly over a number of years by your neighbors the Russian Federation and in consequence they, the extreme nationalists, have set your country on the path to this disastrous war.
I won’t go on.
If I’m wrong, please help me to understand how?
If I’m not wrong, please help me in my honest endeavors to persuade our leaders to stop the slaughter, the slaughter which serves only the interests of the ruling classes and extreme nationalists both here in the West, and in your beautiful country, at the expense of the rest of us ordinary people both here in the West, and in the Ukraine, and in fact ordinary people everywhere all over the world.
Might it not be better to demand the implementation of your husband’s election promises and put an end to this deadly war?
Love,
Roger Waters
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.