By Isabelle Casey
Copyright hellomagazine
The Duke of Sussex has made a surprise trip to Ukraine following his four-day visit to the UK. Prince Harry, 40, said he wants to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of injured military staff. Harry travelled to Kyiv with a team from his Invictus Games Foundation – his organisation dedicated to the rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women – following an invitation from the Ukrainian government.
According to the Guardian, during his visit, the dad-of-two is set to outline new plans to help rehabilitate the wounded. It is understood the Duke has a busy schedule during the day, but details are yet to be disclosed for security reasons.
“We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process,” Harry told the publication while on an overnight train to Kyiv. “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,” he added.
Harry said he was first invited to Kyiv by the founder and chief executive of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, Ukraine, which treats amputees.
He had visited the centre in April but met founder Olga Rudnieva by chance again in the US. He said he asked Ms Rudnieva how he could help and “she said ‘the biggest impact you have is coming to Kyiv'”. Referring to his former actress wife, the Duchess of Sussex, he added: “I had to check with my wife and the British government to make sure it was OK. Then the official invitation came.”
On Wednesday, the Sussexes’ charitable foundation Archewell announced it had donated 500,000 US dollars (£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 hurt in the conflicts.
The Guardian reported that while in Kyiv, Harry is due to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. He is also due to spend time with 200 veterans and meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Father-son meeting
His trip comes after spending several days in the UK, where he reunited with his father, King Charles, for their first face-to-face meeting in 19 months.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the pair met for a ‘private tea’ at Clarence House on Wednesday evening at 17.20pm when Prince Harry was captured arriving by car at Charles’s London residence. Harry left Clarence House at 18.14pm, roughly an hour after his arrival. He was driven out in a black car and is expected to attend an Invictus Games-related event this evening.
Harry last saw his father for a 45-minute meeting at Clarence House in February 2024, when he made a transatlantic dash from his Californian home to the UK upon receiving the news of Charles’ cancer diagnosis.
As well as his meeting with his father, during his four-day visit to the UK, Harry attended the Wellchild Awards, visited the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham, and made a special appearance at the Diana Award, the charity he shares with his brother Prince William, among other meaningful visits. See the best photos from his trip to the UK below.
