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Prince Harry in Kyiv: UK Royal Launches Recovery Programs for Ukraine’s War-Wounded Veterans
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Prince Harry made an unannounced visit to Kyiv this week, pledging to support the recovery of thousands of Ukrainians wounded in Russia’s full-scale war, The Guardian reported on September 12.
The Duke of Sussex traveled to Ukraine with a team from his Invictus Games Foundation, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to aid the rehabilitation of injured service members. The group is expected to announce new initiatives aimed at expanding support across the country.
“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 traveling overnight by train to the Ukrainian capital.
“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 his visit came after a chance encounter in New York with Olga Rudnieva, CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, which treats amputees and other severely wounded soldiers. He first toured the center in April.
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“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,” he said.
“In Lviv, you don’t see much of the war. This is the first time we will see the real destruction of the war.”
Ukraine has competed in the Invictus Games since 2017, but its role in the competition—founded by Harry in 2014 for wounded veterans—has grown significantly since the Russian invasion.
Recalling the Games in The Hague two years ago, the prince said: “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 his stay in Kyiv, Harry is scheduled to visit the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, meet with Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and spend time with some 200 veterans.
Ukraine’s veterans minister, Natalia Kalmykova, emphasized the importance of sports recovery programs. “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,” she said.
Earlier, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the opening of the new prosthetics center “Human Titans”, based at one of the city hospitals. The center will provide modern prosthetics and rehabilitation for wounded soldiers and civilians.
