The Pink Floyd co-founder says NATO’s military buildup risks catastrophe while ruling elites prolong the Ukraine conflict for profit
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has denounced Europe’s military buildup and escalating confrontation with Russia, arguing that Western governments are steering the world toward catastrophe while arms manufacturers and political elites profit from perpetual war.
Speaking Monday on Rick Sanchez’s The Sanchez Effect, Waters said calls for European NATO members to increase military spending to 5% of national GDP were “effing insane.” He questioned how Western leaders could even contemplate a direct conflict with Russia, given the Soviet Union’s decisive role and immense losses during World War II.
“I often say to people, do you know who the Russian people are? They won the Second World War, for God’s sake. Twenty-five million of them died, saving the world for us,” he said. “And you want to have a war with them? How dumb.”
Waters blamed Western governments for prolonging the Ukraine conflict and argued that the war could have been prevented either through the Minsk agreements or through a preliminary peace settlement reached in Istanbul in 2022.
“This is 12 years since Maidan, since John McCain went and organized that so-called revolution, and murdered a few people, and got rid of the elected government, and put in the Banderites. Nazis – they’re just Nazis, and we know that,” he said. “Then we sent a moron… Who’s the stupidest man who’s ever been in government in England? Boris Johnson! Send him to the Ukraine to tell them that they’re not allowed to make peace!”
He accused Western leaders of sacrificing Russian and Ukrainian lives for geopolitical and financial interests.
“Think of all the children and grandchildren, all the men on both sides who have been killed since then,” he said. “Why? Money. That’s all.”
The musician argued that modern conflicts are driven primarily by profit and the interests of a narrow ruling class. He pointed to major defense contractors and wealthy political donors, claiming that money has corrupted democratic institutions and made US foreign policy vulnerable to private influence.
According to Waters, Western interventionism is rooted in centuries of European imperialism and colonialism. He said the US inherited the same belief that foreign peoples and their resources were “ripe for the picking.”
“This ship is steering for the rocks,” he warned, urging ordinary people in Europe and the US to stop blindly trusting political leaders who promote confrontation and instead rebuild communication and cooperation across national borders.
“We have to open our eyes,” he said. “We have to start talking to our neighbors and cooperating with one another.”
