Prince Harry makes secret visit to Ukraine
10 April 2025 9:55pm BST
Prince Harry made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Thursday.
The Duke of Sussex went to the Superhumans Centre in Lviv, in the west of Ukraine, where wounded soldiers and civilians are treated and rehabilitated.
The trip came a day after he appeared in a court in London to argue that he needed state-backed security for him and his family in the UK because his “life was at risk”.
Prince Harry is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine since the war broke out in 2022 after Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, travelled there last year.
Last month, Prince William met Ukrainian refugees during a two-day visit to Estonia.
The Duke’s visit, to an area that is a frequent target of Russian missiles, was not announced until after he had left Britain. It is understood Buckingham Palace was not made aware of the trip in advance because the Duke is no longer a working royal.
Photographs from Thursday’s visit showed him wearing a jacket emblazoned with the name of his Invictus Games Foundation as he talked to wounded Ukrainian veterans. He also met Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister of veterans’ affairs.
The visit by the Duke, who lives in California, could be seen as a message to Donald Trump, the US president, who has aired his frustration with Volodymyr Zelensky and pushed for an end to the war.
When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Sussexes condemned the war and said they “stand with the people of Ukraine”.
“Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and all of us at Archewell stand with the people of Ukraine against this breach of international and humanitarian law and encourage the global community and its leaders to do the same,” they said in a statement.
The Duke made the trip to Lviv to view the rehabilitation services being provided in a country actively experiencing war, a spokesman said, touring the centre and meeting patients and the surgical team. Ukraine has been a part of the Invictus Games since 2017, with service personnel and veterans engaging in the Games.