Prince Harry laid a wreath at a flower and flag memorial to Ukraine’s war dead in Kyiv’s Maidan Square during a surprise visit to support the country in its fight against Russia, as well as its thousands of seriously injured veterans.
Harry said he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of the thousands of military personnel who have been seriously injured in the three-year war against Russia.
During the trip to Kyiv, after an invitation from the Ukrainian government, Harry and a team from his Invictus Games Foundation gave details of new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of the wounded, with the eventual aim of providing help to all areas of the country.
The work of the foundation has become a passion for the prince, and he admitted the purpose that it had given him after leaving the military had “saved me”.
“When I was 21 or 22, I think I resented the institutional role [of the monarchy], probably because of what it did to my mum,” he said.
“When I was young I didn’t appreciate the spotlight that came with my role within the institution. But then I grew up to learn through military service the impact and responsibility that comes with service. It’s the purpose of serving others that has saved me.”
Prince Harry embraces Oksana Ilnytska, whose husband, Serhii Ilnytskyi, the team captain at the Invictus Games in Sydney 2018, was killed in 2023. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Harry said he had come to Kyiv to show his support for the country and all the veterans who were now recovering and rehabilitating from their injuries.
“We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“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.”
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.
Prince Harry lays flowers in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, where a missile strike in June killed more than 20 people. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
The prince said he was initially invited to Kyiv by Olga Rudnieva, the founder and chief executive of the Superhumans trauma centre in Lviv, which treats wounded amputees. He visited the centre in April, but met Rudnieva by chance a couple of months ago in the US.
“I bumped into Olga in New York,” he said. “It was a chance meeting and I asked her what I could do to help. She said: ‘The biggest impact you could 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.”
The prince has toured Kyiv since arriving this morning, meeting veterans and visiting areas bombed by Russian drones and missiles.
In the afternoon, he laid a wreath at a flower and flag memorial to the war dead that has sprung up, and continues to grow, in Kyiv’s Maidan Square.
One of those waiting to meet the prince was the EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, whose embassy was bombed last month.
Harry holds a division flag given him by a war veteran at Kyiv’s National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Mathernová said the prince had become very popular in Ukraine, despite having visited the country only once before. “I think he is associated with veterans and the Invictus Games,” she said. “It’s not easy to come here during the war. People appreciate the personal time he has taken and the attention it brings.”
Ukraine first took part in the Invictus Games in 2017, but Ukrainians’ enthusiasm for the competition, which was founded by the prince in 2014 for wounded veterans to compete in sports events, has grown dramatically since the conflict with Russia began.
Harry remembered the reception Ukraine’s team received at the games in The Hague two years ago.
“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,” he said.
Prince Harry on the train from Poland to Kyiv. Ukraine. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
During the trip, the prince was due to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. He was also due to meet the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko.
Travelling to Kyiv would give him the chance to see some of the destruction first-hand, he said.
While the biennial Invictus Games have been the focal point of much of the foundation’s work, it has been increasing its sports recovery programmes to help provide opportunities for rehabilitation beyond the main games, including by providing sports equipment in Ukraine.
Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister for veterans affairs, said sport had become a key function in veterans’ healthcare.
“It’s thanks to our relationship with the Invictus Games Foundation that we established, and continue to develop, the role of sports in recovery in Ukraine and why it’s included in the veteran policy strategy,” she added.
