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Royal Roads University lights Hatley Castle in solidarity with Ukraine

Castle to be lit yellow and blue overnight from March 8 to 21
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Royal Roads University’s Hatley Castle lit up in yellow and blue, the colours of Ukraine’s flag, in a show of support for the country. (Courtesy Royal Roads University)

Royal Roads University is joining people around the world in using the colours of Ukraine’s national flag as a sign of support for the war-stricken country.

Beginning Tuesday night and running until March 21, the university is lighting the south side of Hatley Castle in yellow and blue from dusk to dawn.

The visual display follows a March 4 written condemnation from the university’s president and vice-chancellor Philip Steenkamp.

“We stand with and among those who are working to end this war, and all wars. And we stand with everyone committed to restoring democracy and peace in Ukraine,” Steenkamp said.

He added that as an international university, Royal Roads has colleagues, partners, faculty and students from or living in Ukraine and Russia. The university has reached out to its students from the two countries to offer support.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s my time to do what I can’: Victoria man headed to Ukraine to assist at hospital

Steenkamp also provided guiding words around the messaging and imagery coming out of Ukraine, and the need to provide equal care and attention to all wars.

“The images of defiant courage we have seen over these past several days have been breathtaking … But they don’t obscure the terrible suffering that this war is inflicting on everyday people, on children, on the elderly — or the tremendous danger it poses should it escalate,” he said.

“The injustice of this war is overwhelming. The injustice of all war is overwhelming, whether it’s in Kyiv or Kabul, Syria or Myanmar, Yemen or Ethiopia, the drug war in Mexico or the guerilla war in Colombia.”

READ ALSO: Victoria suspends ties with Russian twin city over Ukraine invasion


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