The Royal Opera House is accused of ‘betrayal’ by Ukraine after allowing Russian soprano Anna Netrebko to perform on its world-famous stage

Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain makes an unprecedented intervention today to attack the ‘betrayal’ of allowing Russian soprano Anna Netrebko to perform in London.

War hero Valerii Zaluzhnyi, known as the ‘Iron General’, warns that her appearance at the Royal Opera House on Thursday is ‘a test’ by Vladimir Putin of Kyiv‘s ‘closest and most devoted ally’.

In an extraordinarily emotive appeal to Britain, he writes in an article for the Daily Mail: ‘The Kremlin pays close attention to such signals.

‘Will we allow Putin to use art as a curtain to hide his crimes? Will we allow his closest allies to stand on the world’s stages as if nothing has happened?’

Mr Zaluzhnyi says the voice of the soprano ‘for decades shielded a dictator’ and this week it will ‘drown out the real cries’ of children and mothers killed every night by Putin.

It is a rare public intervention from the ambassador, who famously marshalled the defence of Kyiv at the start of Russia‘s full-scale invasion in 2022, earning his ‘Iron General’ nickname.

Mr Zaluzhnyi has turned down all interviews since assuming his position in London in July last year.

But Ukrainian officials told the Mail he is ‘incredibly disappointed’ by both Sir Keir Starmer’s administration and the Royal Opera House for allowing Netrebko to perform in the UK.

The soprano has been feted by Putin, with whom she has been photographed on several occasions. 

After his 2014 invasion of Ukraine, she made a donation towards a theatre in occupied Donetsk and waved a pro-Russian separatist flag. 

She has since left Russia for Austria, dropped her Russian passport and claimed she didn’t understand the significance of the flag in 2014.

Netrebko has gone on to distance herself from the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, writing on social media in 2022: ‘I am opposed to this senseless war of aggression and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now, to save all of us!’

But she has stopped short of criticising Putin personally and claimed that, as an artist, she should not be required to take a public stand against her homeland to pursue her career.

When New York’s Metropolitan Opera took a principled stand to cut ties with her in 2022 she sued them for breach of contract and defamation.

While a federal judge initially dismissed most of her claims, in July this year the case was allowed to proceed on claims of gender and national origin discrimination. 

Now the Royal Opera House has invited her back for the first time in six years to open the season on Thursday to sing Tosca by Giacomo Puccini at Covent Garden.

In a statement, Royal Opera House chief executive Alex Beard said: ‘Our support for Ukraine was aligned with the global consensus at the time’, adding: ‘As the world’s geopolitics have become more complex, our stance has changed to ensure that our actions reflect our purpose and values.’

A Ukrainian official told the Mail: ‘This is particularly painful for Ukrainians to see our dearest ally welcome Netrebko.

‘It was British leaders who first understood the significance of Putin’s invasion, who led on the world stage in garnering support in our darkest hour.

‘But now they seemingly don’t understand what it means to roll out the red carpet for Netrebko in London just weeks after the red carpet was rolled out for Putin in Alaska.

‘The ambassador is incredibly disappointed, he has tried raising this both with the government and the Royal Opera House but it feels as if no-one is listening.’

More than 200 Ukrainian organisations have written to the Royal Opera House, while the ambassador has personally raised the matter with Mr Beard.

Mr Zaluzhnyi has also written to the Foreign Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, while Ukrainian activists have even appealed to the King, who is patron of the Royal Opera House – but all approaches have been rebuffed.

The Government has declined to intervene saying such decisions are not for it. The theatre is part-funded by the Arts Council and the National Lottery.

John Foreman, a former UK defence attaché to Moscow and Kyiv, said: ‘Keir Starmer repeats these platitudes of standing shoulder to shoulder for as long as it takes.

‘But it’s up to the Government not to backslide and show some backbone. It is absolutely disgraceful. Principles matter and these things are worth fighting for. This is just wrong.’

The performance comes just weeks after Russia bombed the British Council in Kyiv.

Olena Ivashchenko, chief executive of Campaign for Ukraine, who has campaigned to stop Netrebko’s performance, said: ‘At the very same time as Russia bombs the British Council, Britain rolls out the red carpet for Netrebko? It is just so strange.

‘How would Britain have felt if an ally invited a German Nazi supporter to perform at the opera during World War Two? It is heartbreaking for us.’

Natalia Ravlyuk, head of Support Ukraine, who are planning a protest for Thursday, also hit out.

‘We appreciate the support of Britain and the British public so much which makes this feel so wrong,’ she said.

‘Ukrainians are being bombed every single day by Russian terrorists and in the middle of all of this, in the heart of democracy in London, the Royal Opera House is welcoming a person who visited occupied territories, who met Putin personally.

‘We need to stand up for what is right. Britain was leading the way and an example to the world in protecting democracy so this is very painful for us.’

A Royal Opera House spokesman said: ‘Royal Ballet and Opera has always been a place for audiences to experience the best talent from around the world.

‘Every decision about who performs on our stage is made with great care and thoughtful consideration. Anna Netrebko has made her position clear on several occasions.’

Ms Netrebko’s representatives were contacted for comment.

By Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom

When the curtain rises this week at Covent Garden and the hall resounds with the music of Puccini, the audience will see a story of love and betrayal. 

The acclaimed soprano Anna Netrebko will step onto the stage as Tosca – and for some, it will be an evening of high art.

But for me and for millions of Ukrainians, every note, every tear will sound different. Because we remember that, for decades, this singer stood alongside Vladimir Putin, the man responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian children.

Her voice on stage drowns out the real cries – the cries from destroyed maternity hospitals in Mariupol, schools in Kharkiv, kindergartens in Kramatorsk.

And while Netrebko will sing about an imagined tragedy, for us these sounds echo a real one. Tosca will be weeping with the tears of Ukrainian children.

Netrebko is not a victim of circumstance, as she sometimes tries to present herself. She made her choice. In 2012, she served as a ‘trusted representative’ of Putin in the presidential elections.

She met him dozens of times at the Kremlin, posed for official photos, received state honours. 

In 2014, when Moscow was already waging war against Ukraine, she donated one million roubles to a theatre in occupied Donetsk, met with a separatist leader, and posed with the flag of the so-called ‘Novorossiya’ – the swaths of southern Ukraine that Putin is now seizing to amalgamate with Russia.

This was not a ‘gesture of mercy’ from Netrebko, as she claimed at the time. It was a demonstration of political loyalty. And no aria can erase that fact.

Artists like Netrebko are the Kremlin’s ‘soft power’, an instrument to make the world see Russia not as an aggressor, but as a country of ‘great traditions’.

Netrebko has become one of the key symbols of this war. She represented Russia on the world’s stages, embodying the ‘beauty and grandeur’ the Kremlin wanted to display to the world.

Her voice was meant to show that Russia is civilized, modern, worthy of applause. And at the same time, that voice silenced the bombings of Grozny, Aleppo, Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kyiv.

She was, and remains, a cultural instrument legitimising killings in Ukraine.

This week, she will step onto the Covent Garden stage and people will applaud her as if she were only a singer, as if there were no war at all.

The Kremlin pays close attention to such signals. For them, Netrebko’s performance at Covent Garden is not just a concert. It is proof that even after Bucha, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Russian artists with a past in service to a dictator can once again take to Europe’s finest stages.

Britain is our closest and most devoted ally. Your government, your parliament, your people supported Ukraine in our darkest hour.

You gave us weapons, political support, shelter for tens of thousands of Ukrainian women and children. You were among the first to understand that Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war against the very principle of freedom.

That is why it is important not to be indifferent to events such as Anna Netrebko’s performance. This is not just a cultural occasion. This is a test.

Will we allow Putin to use art as a curtain to hide his crimes? Will we allow his closest allies to stand on the world’s stages as if nothing has happened?

Russia always tries to smuggle betrayal into the very soul. It does so under beautiful words, under music, under the guise of culture. But behind this mask of high art lie blood and ruins.

The real tragedy today is not on the stage, but in Ukrainian towns and villages. The real requiem is not in Puccini’s scores, but in destroyed schools, bombed hospitals, in the silence of children’s voices that will never be heard again.

I am not calling for censorship. I am calling for memory and honesty.

When you applaud Tosca, remember: those tears on stage are echoes of the real tears of Ukrainian children. When you listen to the arias, remember that this voice for decades shielded a dictator.