Prince William, 39, made an unpublicized stop at the London building for MI6 on Wednesday February 23, only hours before Russian forces began their attack on Ukraine, according to The Times. There aren’t many details about the Duke of Cambridge’s meeting with the intelligence agency, but he went as his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, 95, and dad Prince Charles, 73, are on the mend after testing positive for COVID-19.
There aren’t many details about what Prince William discussed or even who he met with readily available, and it’s unclear if the meeting was at least part to address the rising tension in Ukraine prior to the attack. The meeting was only logged in the Court Circular, and no name or details were included in the document, but the visit did take place within 24 hours of Putin ordering Russian forces to invade Ukraine.
Russia launched its attack on Ukraine on Thursday at President Vladimir Putin‘s command, after escalating tensions in the region. In response to the attack, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he’d be placing new “severe” sanctions on Russia to hurt their economy and technological developments. Biden also denounced Putin and the attacks and showed support for Ukrainians. “Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bare the consequences,” he said in a speech on Thursday. Similarly, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced sanctions being placed on Russia in light of the invasion, via The Guardian. “This is a catastrophe for our continent,” he said On Thursday. Both leaders had said that they’d spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The Duke of Cambridge’s visit came four days after it was revealed that Queen Elizabeth had tested positive for COVID, shortly after her son Charles had tested positive. The Prince of Wales had returned to his royal duties on Tuesday February 22, via DailyMail. Queen Elizabeth also had a phone call with the prime minister from her residence at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.