Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to Kyiv after an invitation from the Ukrainian government, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of the thousands of military personnel who have been seriously injured in the three-year war against Russia, APA reports, citing The Guardian.
During the trip to the Ukrainian capital, he and a team from his Invictus Games Foundation are set to detail new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of the wounded, with the eventual aim of providing help to all areas of the country.
Earlier this year it was estimated that the Ukraine war had already left 130,000 people with permanent disabilities – and the government has now put rehabilitation through sport at the heart of its policy for helping veterans.
Speaking to the Guardian on an overnight train to the capital, the Duke of Sussex said: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.”
He added: “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.”
The prince said he was initially invited to Kyiv by Olga Rudnieva, the founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, Ukraine which treats wounded amputees. He visited the centre in April, but met her by chance a couple of months ago in the US.
“I bumped into Olga in New York. It was a chance meeting and I asked her what I could do to help. She said ‘the biggest impact you have is coming to Kyiv’. I had to check with my wife and the British government to make sure it was OK. Then the official invitation came.
“In Lviv, you don’t see much of the war. It is so far west. This is the first time we will see the real destruction of the war.”
Ukraine first took part in the Invictus Games in 2017, but enthusiasm and need for the competition, which was founded by the Prince in 2014 for wounded veterans to compete in sports events, has grown dramatically since the conflict with Russia began.
The Duke remembered the reception Ukraine’s team received at the games in The Hague two years ago.
“It was remarkable. Every one of the participants had a journey to get to those games, but nobody from any of the other competing nations was going back to war. That is why the Ukrainians stood out. Everyone felt an immense connection to them. Some of the competitors were being pulled off the battlefield and were going back to the battlefield. It means so much to us, because it means so much to them.”
During the trip, the Prince is due to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. He is expected to spend time with 200 veterans, who have also been invited. He is also due to meet the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko.
Travelling to Kyiv would give him a chance to talk to veterans, and also see some of the destruction first-hand, he said. While the biennial Invictus Games have been the focal point of much of the foundation’s work, it has been increasing its sports recovery programmes to help provide opportunities for rehabilitation beyond the main games, including by providing sports equipment in Ukraine.
Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister for veterans affairs, said sport had become “a key function in veterans’ healthcare.
“It’s thanks to our relationship with the Invictus Games Foundation that we established, and continue to develop, the role of sports in recovery in Ukraine and why it’s included in the veteran policy strategy.”
By March this year, more than 22,000 veterans across Ukraine had accessed benefits like gym memberships and pool passes.
