Prince Charles Blasts Putin Amid Ukraine Invasion, Breaks Silence: 'Brutal Aggression'
While Buckingham Palace has not issued any formal statements on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the royal family tends to stay politically neutral, some of the British royals are making their disapproval of Russia quite clear.
Prince Charles has issued perhaps the most condemning statement of them all, though it wouldn’t be the first time he had something negative to say about President Vladimir Putin and Russia.
In 2014, during a trip to Canada and while visiting a museum, Charles met 78-year-old Marienne Ferguson, who lost family in the Holocaust and who fled from the Nazis.
At the time, Putin had recently seized Crimea, something that Charles clearly had feelings about, potentially spurring him to make an incendiary comment to Ferguson after hearing her story.
“I had finished showing him the exhibit and talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada,” Ferguson told the U.K.’s Daily Mail in 2014.
“The prince then said, ‘And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.'”
“I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do,” Ferguson said. “I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the royal family] aren’t meant to say these things, but it was very heartfelt and honest.”
On Tuesday, during a statement delivered at a memorial for David Amess, a politician who was stabbed to death, Charles again clearly placed himself against Russia.
“What we saw in the terrible tragedy in Southend was an attack on democracy, on an open society, on freedom itself,” he said, according to the Southend-on-Sea British Council.
“We are seeing those same values under attack today in Ukraine in the most unconscionable way,” the prince said. “In the stand we take here, we are in solidarity with all those who are resisting brutal aggression.”
Prince William and Duchess Kate as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have issued their own statements regarding the war in Ukraine.
“In October 2020 we had the privilege to meet President Zelenskyy and the First Lady to learn of their hope and optimism for Ukraine’s future,” the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge tweeted on Feb. 26.
“Today we stand with the President and all of Ukraine’s people as they bravely fight for that future.”
In October 2020 we had the privilege to meet President Zelenskyy and the First Lady to learn of their hope and optimism for Ukraine’s future.
Today we stand with the President and all of Ukraine’s people as they bravely fight for that future ?? W & C
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 26, 2022
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex posted their statement on their website, Archewell, titled “We Stand With The People Of Ukraine.”
“Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and all of us at Archewell stand with the people of Ukraine against this breach of international and humanitarian law and encourage the global community and its leaders to do the same,” the statement read.
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