Two Roger Waters concerts set for April in Krakow, Poland, have been canceled by city officials who cite his views on Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“He doesn’t realize the truth,” Councilman Lukasz Wantuch The Associated Press. “He doesn’t understand what is going on in Ukraine.”
Waters, a founding member and former member of Pink Floyd’s rock band, stated that Russia invaded Ukraine because of NATO and Ukraine. Waters blamed Ukrainians in an open letter to Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady. “extreme nationalists”For setting “your country on the path to this disastrous war.” He also pointed to the United States’ and much of the rest of the West’s supplying of Ukraine with weapons.
Wantuch said Waters was free to perform in the city’s private venues but that Krakow would not allow their facilities to be used by someone with views so objectionable to the people of Poland.
“You are calling on the West to cease military aid, which in fact means the capitulation of Ukraine,”Wantuch wrote Monday on Facebook. “Ukraine will not give up, it will fight, but because of people like you, because of what you say and write, it will be a much harder fight.”
According to The Associated Press, Wantuch has been on 27 humanitarian mission since Russia invaded Ukraine. He also spearheaded an initiative to declare Waters. “persona non grata”Waters invited Waters to join him in war-torn Ukraine.
The Associated Press reported that a vote on this initiative was still planned.
News of the concerts’ cancellations broke over the weekend through Polish media, which first reported Waters’ management had initiated them because of backlash in the country over his Russia-Ukraine views. Water denied Sunday’s reports and accused Wantuch with a conspiracy to cancel the concerts. “draconian censoring of my work.”
“Wantuch seems to know nothing of my history of working, all my life, at some personal cost, in the service of human rights,”Waters shared her thoughts on Facebook.
The European leg of Waters’ “This Is Not a Drill Tour” Next March, Lisbon, Portugal will host the kick-offIt will be the 31-day North American tour that includes stops in Los Angeles on Tuesday night and Wednesday night, Las Vegas on Saturday and Mexico City next month.
