Queen's defiant gesture as she refuses to send swords to Russian museum

ok.co.uk:

The Queen has made a defiant gesture against Russia in a bid to show her support to the people of Ukraine amid the war crisis.The 95 year old monarch, who is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this year, officially gave her blessing to the Royal Collection to postpone the loan of three 17th Century weapons to the Kremlin Museums in Moscow.The royal's gesture was a brave and powerful move as she joined the cultural boycott of the country led by Vladimir Putin.The Royal Collection had initially agreed to loan the swords to the Kremlin museums for an exhibition about duelling, according to The Guardian.

Permission was then withdrawn in mid-February, and came following other European institutions' decisions to ban their artefacts from the displays.

Get exclusive celebrity stories and fabulous photoshoots straight to your inbox with OK!'s daily newsletter .The exhibition is called The Duel: from Trial by Combat to a Noble Crime.

Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov was one of the sponsors, and has since been sanctioned following Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.