The British musician Roger Waters, formerly of rock group Pink Floyd, has taken controversial positions on a number of foreign policy issues recently, including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In September, he wrote an open letter to Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska blaming "extreme nationalists" in Ukraine for the ongoing war, claiming Kyiv had "crossed any number of red lines that had been set out quite clearly" by Moscow.
The singer-songwriter called for an end to western arms supplies to Ukraine, which he described as fuel "thrown into the fire from Washington DC."
The remarks sparked a backlash, with Ukraine and allies accusing Waters of promoting the Kremlin's talking points and being an "apologist" for authoritarians.
Two of the ex-Floyd member's upcoming gigs in the Polish city of Krakow were canceled in protest, with Łukasz Wantuch, a Krakow city councilman, inviting Waters to "come with us to Ukraine and see for yourself how wrong you are."
In a Rolling Stone magazine interview published in October, Roger Waters claimed to be "on a kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government."
Waters said: "I'm on the f**king list, and they've killed people recently. When they kill you, they write 'liquidated' across your picture. Well, I'm one of those f**king pictures."
While he doesn't clarify the finer details, the article's author suggests that Waters appears to be referring to the Mirotvorets list, compiled by Ukrainians, which launched online in December 2014 to detail those they believe are "enemies of Ukraine" who "have signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security, and the international law."
"Waters' claim isn't true, but it isn't completely false, either," the article says.
"There is a list maintained by a far-right Ukrainian organization that contains hundreds of thousands of enemies of Ukraine, from alleged members of the Wagner private military company to journalists accused of cooperating with puppet governments in the Donbas region.
"The site, which has been roundly internationally condemned — but not taken down by the Ukrainian government itself — claims not to be a kill list but rather "information for law enforcement authorities and special services."
The authors do not provide evidence in support of the "far-right" epithet or clarify what "roundly internationally condemned" amounts to. Newsweek has reached out to the Rolling Stone for comment.
As various media reports on Mirotvorets note, it is an NGO that keeps an open-sourced database of persons that it deems to have promoted anti-Ukrainian narratives or acted to destabilize Ukraine's national security. Since the start of the war, it also keeps count of the Russian soldiers and agents killed on its territory.
While the identities of the project's staff are kept secret, Gerashchenko insisted during an interview with the British publication that Mirotvorets is independent of the Ukrainian government and doesn't receive any state funding.