Ukrainian flag to fly above Cork City Hall in show of solidarity

A Ukrainian national flag waves over the centre of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. The Ukrainian flag will be flown above Cork’s City Hall on Friday. Picture: AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov

The Ukrainian flag will be flown above Cork’s City Hall on Friday as a gesture of solidarity with the people of Ukraine following Thursday’s invasion by Russia.

Similar gestures have taken place all over Europe, with landmark buildings illuminated in blue and yellow and flags flown in solidarity.

The historic building on Anglesea St will later on Friday be illuminated in blue and yellow in a gesture which will last nightly for at least a week, Lord Mayor Colm Kelleher said.

“The incursion we witnessed today by Russian forces was akin to what happened to Poland in 1939,” he said.

Lord Mayor Colm Kelleher, Ukrainian Ambassador Gerasko Larysa, and Cork City Council deputy chief executive Brian Geaney.

“It is a very worrying time, geopolitically, to be on the brink of war just over 80 years since the end of the war in Europe to end all wars.

“I have asked that the Ukrainian flag be flown alongside the tricolour above City Hall tomorrow and that the building’s lighting system would light up blue and yellow in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.” 

Mr Kelleher met the Ambassador of Ukraine to Ireland, Gerasko Larysa, during a courtesy visit to City Hall last November.