Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to Kyiv after an invitation from the Ukrainian government, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of the thousands of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war against Russia.
During the trip, he and a team from his Invictus Games Foundation are set to detail new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of the wounded, with the eventual aim of providing help to all areas of the country. Earlier this year it was estimated that the Ukraine war had already left 130,000 people with permanent disabilities, and the government has now put rehabilitation through sport at the heart of its policy for helping veterans.
Speaking to the Guardian on an overnight train to the capital, the Duke of Sussex said: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.” He added: “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.”
The prince said he was initially invited to Kyiv by Olga Rudnieva, founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, which treats wounded amputees. He visited the centre in April, but met her by chance a couple of months ago in the US. “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.”
During the trip, the Prince is due to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War and spend time with 200 veterans. He is also due to meet the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko. Ukraine first took part in the Invictus Games in 2017, and enthusiasm has grown dramatically since the conflict with Russia began. Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister for veterans affairs, said sport had become “a key function in veterans’ healthcare.”
