Harry and Meghan fans’ Twitter attack on Zelenskyy raises bot concerns about accounts

The upsetting scenes in Ukraine brought an unusually public response from the royals this week. 

The Cambridges and the Sussexes made statements, while Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall put the issue at the heart of their work.‘

‘The Prince of Wales spent the weekend locked in talks with his advisers about how to express the anguish that he like everyone else feels at what he is seeing unfold in Ukraine, but also what he could do to help practically,’ The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English tells this week’s Palace Confidential. 

This included a speech and using his ‘remarkable convening power’ to bring together leaders of five charities of which he is patron, to help Ukrainians in Britain better support family and friends at home. 

Despite their actions, royal biographer Hugo Vickers thinks the Queen will keep her customary counsel and leave the comments to her son and grandson. 

‘The Queen has always remained above politics and she has always remained silent, so I would imagine on this occasion that she will continue that policy,’ he says. 

‘The Queen is not a stirrer-up of trouble; she is a tremendous conciliator… and so I think if Prince Charles and Prince William have had their say, I don’t think there’s any need for her to say anything.’ 

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden pointed out an extraordinary spat on social media, in which fans of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attacked the embattled Ukrainian leader. 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, pictured during their visit to Wales on Tuesday, also sent a message of support to the Ukrainian people

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have condemned Russia’s offensive on Ukraine during a speech at 53rd NAACP Image Awards Show on Saturday in Burbank, California 

‘This was something extraordinary, here we have President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy fighting to survive, his life is under threat and he was able to send a message to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, thanking them for their support for the people of Ukraine,’ he says.

‘He starts then being abused by some of the more strident social media followers of Harry and Meghan, saying “Why haven’t you thanked them?”’ 

His fellow panellist, author and historian Dr Tessa Dunlop, wondered whether these accounts could have a more nefarious origin. 

‘We have to question, to what extent are those trolls and naysayers actually bots – controlled, incidentally, possibly by Russia,’ she says. 

‘I’ve often wondered [about] the sort of militancy behind some of the Sussex following… makes me wonder if they’re actually real.’ 

The Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden pointed out that fans of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have attacked Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, pictured, for not thanking them for their support in ‘extraordinary’ spat