Ukraine’s envoy to UN lashes former Pink Floyd guitarist for supporting Russia
Putinist Roger Waters spoke at the UN Security Council - Serhiy Kyslytsia responded to him (Photo:REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Serhiy Kyslytsya, sharply responded to a UN speech by former guitarist of the Pink Floyd rock band Roger Waters on Feb 8.
Waters, who supports Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, was invited by the Russian delegation to take part in a UN Security Council meeting.
The 79-year-old musician addressed the Security Council and called for an urgent ceasefire in Ukraine, saying that he represents the opinion of “approximately four billion brothers and sisters.”
In response, Kyslytsya, in his speech, called Waters “another brick in the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda.”
The Ukrainian diplomat reiterated that Waters himself in one of his interviews last September called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “the new Hitler.”
“When I hear the Russian envoy speaking about yet another newly invented version of the goals of the so called ‘special military operation’ to be accomplished, all I can tell him is ‘Pigs might fly,’” Kyslytsya said.
“The original version of the phrase was ‘Pigs in the air with their tails forward.’ I am surprised he has not inflated a giant pig-shaped balloon in the Security Chamber today as at many of his shows in the past. What could it have been this time, Mr. Waters? Pigs with swastikas and a hammer and sickle, like at some of your performances decried for their antisemitism? Or probably the face of Putin and Hitler? After all, was not it Mr. Waters who in one of his interviews in September last year called Vladimir Putin ‘the new Hitler?’ That could have been quite a show for this Chamber, indeed!”
Kyslytsya noted that Waters had announced earlier this month that he would play in Moscow.
“In 1979 Pink Floyd came up with a song ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’” the diplomat noted.
“The same year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. It is ironic if not hypocritical that Mr. Waters attempts now to whitewash another invasion. How sad for his former fans to see him accepting the role of just ‘a brick in the wall,’ the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda.”
“Pigs might fly, Mr. Waters! Not sure if they can with Hitler’s and Putin’s name at a concert in Moscow. Even with swastikas and a hammer and sickle. And especially if once again you put a Nazi like long leather jacket,” he added.
Kyslytsya also finished his speech with a quote from the last lines of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
“Remember, when standing outside the farmhouse, where pigs and men were drinking together, they (quote) ‘looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.’ (end of quote),” the diplomat said.
“Can you clearly distinguish which is which when you look at what the Russian Hitler reduces his country to?”
The Ukrainian envoy also advised Waters to “keep strumming the guitar.”
“A taste of pop culture today from the Russian delegation, how about contracting something more classic for this Council?” Kyslytsya asked.
“How about the ‘Swan Lake’ on Feb. 17 – this full-length, four-act, three-hour expanse, that Russians are so accustomed to endure when their next dictator dies – Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko … the next one …”
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
