Maxine Waters’s war stance is a central part of his brand

Waters has made his political views, and his opposition to what he considers unnecessary wars a central part of his brand. He has been particularly vocal about the war in Ukraine.

He sparred with Ukraine's first lady on Twitter last September when he said Ukraine should pursue peace with Russia. This week in an interview with The Telegraph he tried to walk back comments from early in the war that called the conflict a criminal mistake and the act of a gangster - an apparent reference to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. He said that may have been unfair. Richard M. Mills, the UN ambassador to the United Nations, dismissed the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Waters spoke to the Security Council. Waters'impressive credentials as a recording artist, his qualifications on European security and arms control were less evident to me, Mr. Mills said with a shrug.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya, invoked Pink Floyd's biggest hit to criticize Mr. Waters called him a brick in the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda.

When was Mr. Waters, 79, verbally sparred with Olena Zelenska, the wife of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, last year, posted an open letter to her on Facebook last year in which he lamented the deaths of Ukrainians and Russians in the war and said the best way to prevent more killing was for the West to stop supplying arms to Ukraine. Ms. Zelenska responded on Twitter the next day and the following week, Mr. Zelenska responded. Waters responded to a Facebook post.