Prince Harry made a surprise visit to wartorn Kyiv, but only after first getting clearance from his wife, Meghan.
The Duke of Sussex travelled overnight from Poland to the Ukrainian capital after receiving an invitation from the government.
He said he wanted to do “everything possible” to support the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war against Russia.
Harry, accompanied by a team from his Invictus Games Foundation, the Paralympic-style organization he founded to support wounded veterans, will announce new initiatives to back rehabilitation programmes, with the long-term aim of expanding support across the whole country.
It was a surprise add-on to a tour of the U.K. that has seen the prince carry out a series of high-profile charity engagements and have his first meeting with his father in 19 months.
He is seeking to leave behind the controversies of the past five years and re-establish himself as an activist and philanthropist.
“It was a chance meeting with Olga [Rudnieva, founder of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv] in New York that set this in motion,” Harry told The Guardian when asked how the visit came about. “I asked what I could do to help. She said the biggest impact would be coming to Kyiv. I had to check with my wife and the British government, but then the official invitation came.”
The prince said the purpose of his trip was simple. “We cannot stop the war, but what we can do is help the recovery process. We can continue to humanize the people involved in this war and what they are going through.”
The scale of the challenge is immense. More than 130,000 people are estimated to have been left with permanent disabilities since the start of the invasion, and by March this year, 22,000 veterans had accessed sports-based rehabilitation programmes.
During his visit to Kyiv, Harry is expected to meet with 200 veterans, tour the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, and hold talks with Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s Minister for Veterans Affairs, said sport was now “a key function in veterans’ healthcare,” crediting the Invictus Foundation with integrating sport into national recovery policy.
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