“You know we stand with you,” said Prince Harry to the Ukrainian team at the Invictus Games this weekend. “The world is united with you and still you deserve more.”
Harry spoke during the opening ceremony for the games, an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, which he founded in 2014.
He said the Ukrainians had come “not simply to show your strength but to tell your truth, the truth, of what is happening in your country”.
“And my hope is that these events, this event, creates the opportunity in how we as a global community can better show up for you,” he continued.
While Ukraine is under assault from Russia, the country’s delegation was given special permission to participate in the games by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were, according to the BBC, accompanied at the event by a documentary team for Heart of Invictus, the series about a group of competitors from around the globe on their road to the 2022 Invictus Games in The Hague. Heart of Invictus was greenlit by Netflix last year as the first project from a multi-million-dollar deal with the couple’s Archewell Productions.
Markle introduced her “incredible husband” on Saturday, praising him for founding the event and then expressing her admiration for all the athletes’ sacrifices “both physically and emotionally…not least of which for the Ukraine team, who we are all standing with.”
