Britain's Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, made a surprise visit to Ukraine over the weekend, meeting wounded veterans and medics who specialise in war injuries and telling them: "You're going to win the war." It was his fourth visit to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion, and the trip was kept secret until it took place. He spent Saturday and Sunday in the western city of Lviv.
On Saturday Harry visited the Superhumans Centre, a specialised medical, prosthetics and rehabilitation facility in Lviv, and took the stage at the first international War Trauma Conference at the All-Ukrainian War Trauma Center, the first conference dedicated to modern approaches to treating and rehabilitating people with combat-related trauma. Although he acknowledged he had "taken a risk to come here", he told the crowd: "Every single time I come back to Ukraine, I feel welcome, I feel warmth." He added that Ukraine's experience in helping injured military personnel and civilians would become the foundation for rebuilding the country after the war.S3S4
On Sunday Harry watched players compete in the black and yellow colours of the Invictus Games, which he founded in 2014 to help wounded military personnel and veterans. Heats were held in disciplines including the new sport of pickleball, and some players competed in wheelchairs or with amputated limbs. Ukraine plans to field a record team of 60 players at next year's Invictus Games in Birmingham, England. At a closing ceremony the crowd broke into a spontaneous chant of "Garry, Garry", his name as pronounced in Ukrainian.S1S2
Speaking to journalists, Harry described the room as "full of role models for society" and referred to the roughly three million veterans in Ukraine, saying "Those three million individuals have so much to give to society." Ukraine's own figures cited by the Daily Mail put the number of combat veterans at about 1.4 million, more than 10 per cent of whom have disabilities. He called for support for the military to extend to veterans, saying: "We've invested in them before they put the uniform on, we must invest with them once the uniform comes off."S2S3
Harry also told Ukrainians that they had "learned to live with war" and that "every single person in Ukraine is playing their part in this war." He said: "The rest of the world will continue to support you. In my mind you've already won, I hope the war is going to come to an end." Later he told wounded veterans joining the Invictus movement that when the war is over and Ukraine wins, the Invictus Games Foundation would be ready to support them in holding an Invictus Games.S1S2
