Prince Harry made a secret trip to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine. The visit was only announced after he left the country.
Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, is the second British royal to visit Ukraine since the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv grew in February 2022. Last year, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, visited Ukraine.
Prince Harry came to Lviv on Thursday as the founder of the Invictus Games Foundation. The foundation has hosted sports events for wounded war veterans since 2014. During the visit, Harry also met with Ukraine’s veteran affairs minister, Natalia Kalmykova.
During the visit, he toured a rehab centre for wounded Ukrainian soldiers. The place is called the Superhumans Center. He spoke with patients and doctors. He also watched a surgery to fix the hearing of a wounded soldier.
“This is my first visit to Ukraine, and it will not be my last,” Harry said. His words were shared by the Superhumans Center on Facebook on Friday. Harry added that the Invictus Games Foundation would help the Ukrainian team “as long as needed.”
Rob Owen, CEO of the Invictus Games Foundation, said Ukraine has been “a vital part” of the foundation since joining the Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017.
Harry’s visit to Lviv “shows the Invictus Games Foundation’s strong commitment to helping with recovery and rehab for wounded, injured, and sick troops and veterans, even in tough places,” Owen added.
Prince Harry lives in California. He flew to Ukraine from London. There, he was at a two-day court hearing. He is trying to get state-funded security for his family back. The UK took away this security in 2020 after Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from royal duties. In court, Harry said he needed protection in the UK because his “life was at risk.”
In 2023, Harry and Meghan were seen at an Invictus Games event with Yulia ‘Taira’ Paevskaya. She is a former member of Ukraine’s Azov volunteer battalion. Moscow called Paevskaya “a terrorist cutthroat.” They claimed her hands were “covered in the blood of the elderly, women, and children.” Moscow accused her of crimes in Donbas. Ukrainian troops were sent there in 2014. The region refused to accept the new West-backed government after the Kyiv coup.
