Prince Harry Makes Surprise Visit to Kyiv to Support War-Wounded Veterans

Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to Ukraine, pledging support for injured veterans just hours after leaving the UK.

The Duke of Sussex, 40, had been on a four-day trip to Britain and was expected to return to Los Angeles on Thursday night, September 11. Instead, he boarded an overnight train to Kyiv, where he vowed to do “everything possible” to help those wounded by the war.

Harry, a longtime advocate for wounded service members, travelled with a team from the Invictus Games Foundation and will announce new initiatives to support rehabilitation efforts across Ukraine.

Speaking to The Guardian during the train journey, the Prince said: “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.”

He added that he hoped the trip would remind the world of the human cost of the conflict, which has left an estimated 130,000 people with permanent disabilities.

Harry revealed that he was invited to Kyiv by Olga Rudnieva, founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, which specialises in treating war-wounded veterans, including amputees. The Prince previously visited the centre in April.

He said he had to check with Meghan Markle and the British government before accepting the invitation, noting that Lviv — far to the west — did not fully show the impact of the war. “This is the first time we will see the real destruction of the war,” he said.

The Prince’s itinerary includes a visit to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, a gathering with 200 veterans, and a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.