Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters spoke at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday where he urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. The rock icon was invited to participate in the meeting, which was convened to discuss peace prospects and weapons deliveries to Kiev, by Russia.
Waters said in his address that he spoke on behalf of the “voiceless majority,” delivering a broader anti-war message. The musician slammed profiteers of the ongoing hostilities and those striving for “unipolar world domination,” warning that such goals would only lead to a global catastrophe.
“The voiceless majority is concerned that your wars – yes, your wars, for these perpetual wars are not of our choosing – that your wars will destroy the planet that is our home,” Waters stated.
Along with every other living thing, we will be sacrificed on the altar of two things: profits from the war to line the pockets of the very, very few and the hegemonic march of some empire or other towards unipolar world domination. Please reassure us that that is not your vision, for there is no good outcome down that road. That road leads only to disaster.
He said the Russian offensive, which began last February, was “not unprovoked.”
“So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms,” Waters stressed.
“President Biden, President Putin, President Zelensky, USA, NATO, Russia, the EU – all of you – please, change course now. Agree a ceasefire in Ukraine today. That, of course, will only be the starting point. But everything extrapolates from that starting point,” Waters stated, adding that such a move would prompt a worldwide “sigh of relief,” with the prospects of perishing in a global “nuclear Holocaust” thus reduced.
Waters has been an outspoken critic of the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, slamming it previously as an “unnecessary war,” and repeatedly calling for a peaceful resolution to it. He has also condemned the West’s role in provoking the hostilities in the first place, as well as its enduring military support to Kiev, accusing the US and its allies of “war profiteering” and prolonging the conflict.