Prince Harry visits Kyiv to support wounded Ukrainian soldiers

The UK’s Prince Harry arrived in Kyiv on Friday for a surprise visit in support of wounded Ukrainian soldiers, his representatives confirmed.

Harry will visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II, spend time with 200 veterans and meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, according to domestic press.

“We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process,” Harry told the Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv.

Harry, a British Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is the founder of the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event designed to inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries. Ukraine is bidding to host the games in 2029.

The Archewell Foundation, set up by Harry and his wife, Meghan, announced this week that it had donated $500,000 (€426.135) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.

The money will be used to help the World Health Organization with medical evacuations and to fund work developing prosthetics for seriously injured young people.

This is the second time Harry has visited Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, after he made a trip to the western city of Lviv in April.

His visit coincided with a trip to Ukraine by UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who announced a new set of UK sanctions targeting Russia’s oil revenues and military supplies.

Cooper said the visit is a show of solidarity with Ukrainians facing intensified assault from Russia – including 6,500 drones and missiles in July, 10 times the level of a year ago.

Prince Harry's last trip to Ukraine included a visit to the Superhumans Centre, an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats wounded military personnel and civilians. The centre provides prosthetic limbs, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge.

Harry’s visit on Friday comes as Russia escalates its all-out war against Ukraine.

It is less than a week after Russia’s most significant aerial attack on Ukraine since its all-out invasion began more than three years ago — an attack in which the main Ukrainian government building was hit.

It also comes just days after numerous Russian drones entered the airspace of NATO member Poland — the country Harry travelled through to reach Ukraine.