Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released a statement on their website Archewell regarding the current war in Ukraine, proclaiming their support for the country and her people. While many have offered their thoughts and opinions, from celebrities to former politicians, Harry and Meghan’s statement reveals a stunning level of narcissism, as it implies that the couple believes that they are somehow world leaders who can influence such a highly charged and complicated situation.

They can’t.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrific, and news reports indicate that tonight could determine whether the country able to maintain its independence and freedom or falls to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. Women and children are heading for the borders of neighboring countries, in a desperate attempt to escape the oncoming Russian army as men of all ages stay behind to fight. 

However, the Ukrainians have no need to fear. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are going to broker world peace and reinstitute international law.

In a statement on their website Archewell, the couple said: “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.”

Besides missing the comma after Sussex, the comment should have ended with the statement “all of us at Archewell stand with the people of Ukraine.” But like absolutely everything, they take it too far.

Harry and Meghan are not world leaders nor working royals. They are self-proclaimed Hollywood and podcast producers and leaders of a failing nonprofit organization. What in the world makes them think that the international political elite is going to care at all about what they say? Do they honestly think President Joe Biden is unaware that Russia violated international law, or do they think British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is waiting for them to designate the invasion as a humanitarian disaster? Does French President Emmanuel Macron need the Sussex’s encouragement to address the situation? 

No, absolutely not.

In this crisis, they are nothing. Instead of pointing out the obvious, they could have just stated their support for the Ukrainian people and left it like that. But this delusion that somehow a world government won’t move without their support or is waiting on bated breath for their opinion is ridiculous and implies that the couple have a tenuous grasp on reality and their role in the world. 

For example, they are celebrating the President’s Award that they just won from the NAACP, even though it was clearly purchased for them by their PR agency Sunshine Sacks. They’ve done nothing to advance the cause for social justice, nor have they really volunteered their time to that effort. There’s no reason why they should receive this award, yet they are making the PR rounds as if there were not other, more worthwhile candidates.

There’s a real conflict going on and people are dying. The world order is perhaps shifting and entering a period of instability and chaos. But Harry and Meghan are so consumed with their own self-importance that they do anything they can to pull focus away from the real crisis.  

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who’s an African American professor from Stanford who speaks Russian, has the right idea. The royal twosome should take a page out of her book. 

On Twitter, the scholar simply wrote, “The Ukrainian people are fighting fiercely for their freedom, and that of all freedom-loving people. 

“God Bless you, people of Ukraine.”

From a real former world leader and influencer who is not directly involved in the situation, that’s all that needs to be said.