Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to Kyiv to pledge his support for Ukrainian soldiers injured in the country’s war against Russia.
The Duke of Sussex, who served in the British army for a decade, was invited by the Ukrainian government as he said he aims to do “everything possible” to help the thousands of wounded military personnel, say reports. According to the European Disability Forum, as of February, 300,000 people had been left disabled as a result of the war.
Alongside a team from his Invictus Games Foundation – which was founded by Harry in 2014 to enable injured veterans to take part in sporting events – the duke is set to outline new projects that will support the wounded in Kyiv in their rehabilitation. It is expected that the initiatives will later be rolled out across the country.
The new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, will also be travelling to Kyiv on Friday, a move intended to signal the UK’s steadfast support for the war-torn nation.
Her visit comes after Russian drones violating Polish airspace during attacks on Ukraine were shot down by Poland and Nato this week. It also follows Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, an assault that hit a key government building in Kyiv for the first time.
Harry’s surprise trip to the Ukrainian capital follows his four-day stay in the UK, during which he saw his father the King for the first time in almost two years.
The duke told The Guardian on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war, but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.”
He went on: “We can continue to humanise the people involved in this war and what they are going through. We have to keep it in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people, because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
Harry visited The Diana Award in central London on Thursday morning for a final engagement in the UK, where he heard from young people about the positive impact social action has had on their mental health.
In an impromptu speech, the duke said people of all ages were having their mental and emotional health tested every day, and described how young people can feel isolated if “lost and separated from a group”.
The duke has previously expressed his hopes of reconciliation with his family amid his belief that they may never forgive him for his public accusations.
In a move that is being viewed as a significant but tentative step towards repairing the troubled relationship, Harry joined Charles for a private tea late on Wednesday afternoon, spending 54 minutes with his father at Clarence House after not having seen him face-to-face for 19 months.
The duke, however, remains estranged from the Prince of Wales.
The once-close brothers’ longstanding rift shows no sign of healing, with the pair not meeting during Harry’s stay.
However, the duke’s spokesperson said he had “loved” being back in the UK and “catching up with old friends” and colleagues.
Harry said it was Olga Rudnieva, the founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, who initially encouraged him to travel to Kyiv, after he ran into her in the US a couple of months ago, having visited her centre in April.
He explained: “I bumped into Olga in New York. It was a chance meeting, and I asked her what I could do to help. She said, ‘The biggest impact you have is coming to Kyiv.’ I had to check with my wife and the British government to make sure it was OK. Then the official invitation came.
“In Lviv, you don’t see much of the war. It is so far west. This is the first time we will see the real destruction of the war.”
Although Ukraine first competed in the biennial Invictus Games in 2017, the conflict with Russia has sparked a greater interest in, and need for, the event.
Recalling the welcome the Ukrainian team was given at the competition in The Hague two years ago, Harry told The Guardian: “It was remarkable. Every one of the participants had a journey to get to those games, but nobody from any of the other competing nations was going back to war. That is why the Ukrainians stood out. Everyone felt an immense connection to them. Some of the competitors were being pulled off the battlefield and were going back to the battlefield. It means so much to us, because it means so much to them.”
The newspaper reported that the duke will have a busy schedule on Friday, but details are yet to be disclosed for security reasons. During his trip, Harry is also set to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, meet with 200 veterans, and see Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
The prince said his stay in Kyiv will enable him to spend time with veterans as well as witness some of the destruction firsthand.
On Wednesday, the Sussexes’ charitable foundation Archewell announced it had donated $500,000 (£369,000) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.
The grants from Archewell will be used to help the World Health Organisation with medical evacuations, and also to fund work developing prosthetics for youngsters seriously injured in the conflicts.
The announcement coincided with Harry’s visit to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, where he heard more about its work focusing on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.
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