Prince Harry made a surprise visit to Kyiv following an invitation from the Ukrainian government, expressing his desire to do “everything possible” to aid the recovery of thousands of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
During his trip, the Duke of Sussex, accompanied by a team from his Invictus Games Foundation, is expected to announce new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, with the long-term goal of extending assistance across Ukraine.
Earlier this year, it was estimated that the conflict had left 130,000 people with permanent disabilities. The Ukrainian government has placed rehabilitation through sport at the centre of its strategy to support veterans.
Speaking to the reporters while travelling to Kyiv, Prince Harry 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. 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 Guardian reported.
The visit follows an invitation from Olga Rudnieva, founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, which treats wounded amputees.
Ukraine first participated in the Invictus Games in 2017. The competition, founded by Prince Harry in 2014 for wounded veterans, has grown in importance since the conflict with Russia began.
During the visit, Prince Harry is scheduled to tour the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War and meet around 200 veterans. He is also expected to meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister for veterans affairs, said sport had become “a key function in veterans’ healthcare. Thanks to our relationship with the Invictus Games Foundation, we have established and continue to develop the role of sports in recovery in Ukraine, which is now part of our veteran policy strategy.”
By March this year, more than 22,000 Ukrainian veterans had accessed benefits such as gym memberships and swimming pool passes as part of the recovery initiatives.
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