British rock legend and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters' planned concerts in Poland have been cancelled amid a backlash to his stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The concert's promoter, Live Nation Poland, confirmed the cancellation of the shows scheduled for April 21 and 22 without specifying a reason.

The cancellation comes weeks after Waters published a controversial open letter on his website to Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska. In the letter published on September 5, Waters blamed “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine for setting the country “on the path to this disastrous war” and criticized the West, for supplying weapons to Ukraine and NATO for provoking Russia.

In the letter, Waters also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of doubling back on his 2019 election campaign promises and said the extreme nationalists lurked in the shadows of the country ever since he took office.

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The Polish media reported that the two shows at the Tauron Arena in Kraków had been cancelled. However, on Saturday evening, Waters denied that he and his team had cancelled the shows. Waters said the reports were inaccurate and called out media outlets.

“Your papers are wrong in their assertions that either I or my management has cancelled my forthcoming shows in Krakow, we haven't,” Waters wrote on Facebook.

In his post, Waters also addressed Kraków city councillor Łukasz Wantuch, who has called for a vote on a proposal to declare Waters a persona non-grata and the city councillors are expected to vote on it this week.

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As per Waters, the resolution came in response to his “public efforts to encourage all involved in the disastrous war in Ukraine, to work towards a negotiated peace, rather than escalating matters to a potential nuclear war.”

He also said that Wantuch doesn’t know about his history of working in the service of human rights. Waters added that if his shows are cancelled, it will be a sad loss for him as well as for Krakow residents as they won’t be able to hear his message of love.

“His (Wantuch) draconian censoring of my work will deny them the opportunity to make up their own minds,” Waters concluded.

Earlier this year, Pink Floyd released their first new music in 28 years, as a single called ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ to raise funds for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Waters, who left the band in 1984, did not contribute to the song, as per a CNN report.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)