Prince Harry stops for a bite to eat at a roadside food truck.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe aim of the visit is to promote the work of the Duke of Sussex\u2019s Invictus Games Foundation (IGF), and to celebrate the recovery and rehabilitation of the thousands of veterans there who have suffered life-changing injuries since the war with Russia began three years ago.<\/p>\n
Because of the sheer numbers of wounded, Invictus has become increasingly well-known in Ukraine, and Harry, somewhat surprisingly, has achieved cult-hero status.<\/p>\n
The Guardian accompanies him on the journey to the capital \u2013 something of a gamble for both sides, as Harry noted. He is suspicious of the media, and the Guardian has long been critical of the monarchy.<\/p>\n
And over the next 36 hours, we learn a lot \u2013 big and small \u2013 about this complex, conflicted man. He doesn\u2019t like posing for staged photographs, and he doesn\u2019t like cycling (\u201cI have a bony ass\u201d); he likes to box to relieve his frustration \u2013 \u201chitting the hell out of a bag\u201d, he says, helps him to decompress.<\/p>\nThe prince and his team travel from Medyka in Poland, on the border with Ukraine, on an overnight sleeper train.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn private he is very informal, padding around in his socks on the train to and from Kyiv and making dad jokes.<\/p>\n
In public he has a confident voice and an easy charm with strangers, but on his own he is softly spoken and asks questions about people, and about politics. He has views.<\/p>\n
He is not, he says, the unhappy man some of the press like to portray him as, but yes, he wants to spend more time in the UK.<\/p>\n
Does he regret putting his side of the story in the very public way that he has? No he doesn\u2019t. \u201cMy conscience is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
He talks a little about his mother, Diana, and his father too. If Invictus is his professional priority, it seems clear his father is a personal one.<\/p>\n
But all that comes out on the way back to the UK; what is happening in Ukraine is his immediate concern, and for good reason.<\/p>\n
\u2018One of the saddest things I have ever seen. Also one of the most beautiful\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Duke of Sussex visits a memorial in Maidan Square, Kyiv to soldiers killed in the war.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe statistics are shocking and they are on the rise.<\/p>\n
The war in Ukraine has left at least 130,000 people with life-changing injuries, many of them double and triple amputees or with disfigured faces.<\/p>\n
With no sign of the conflict ending, the Ukrainian government has put using sport as a way to help the recovery and rehabilitation of these veterans at the heart of a national policy, and the country\u2019s prime minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, has turned to Invictus for inspiration and help.<\/p>\nThe Ukrainian prime minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, shows Prince Harry the top floor of the Ukrainian government cabinet building, which was hit by a Russian missile attack a week ago.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe remnants of the missile remain on the floor. <\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHarry with Yuliia Svyrydenko.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUkrainians themselves have embraced the whole concept. The men and women who have taken part in the biennial Invictus Games have become national heroes and front-page news.<\/p>\n
But these competitions only involve small numbers, and the need is vast.<\/p>\n
So Invictus has been devising programmes to help veterans all over the country get access to sports facilities. At a reception on Friday morning, the IGF team are guests at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, where they meet ministers and dozens of the recovering wounded.<\/p>\nPrince Harry at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA veteran takes a selfie at the Superhumans event at the museum.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cSports recovery and rehabilitation did not exist in Ukraine before Invictus,\u201d Ruslan Prykhodko, the deputy minister for veterans affairs, tells the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we are creating a whole system with different kinds of training and preparing teams in all kinds of sports.\u201d<\/p>\nHarry speaks with veterans at the event.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAnd it\u2019s here that Harry\u2019s popularity among Ukrainians becomes very clear.<\/p>\n
The injured want to talk to him, the mothers and fathers of the wounded and dead want to shake his hand, or hug him. He is cheered and clapped at every turn, as are his colleagues.<\/p>\nHarry with Olga Rudnieva, visiting the site of a missile strike last month in the residential Solomienka district in Kyiv, where more than 20 people were killed.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. We never expected this level of recognition,\u201d says Olga Rudnieva, the founder and CEO of the Superhumans trauma centre in Lviv, which has worked closely with Invictus in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrdinary people know who he is. We honestly didn\u2019t know he had become such a celebrity. I think Prince Harry coming here is a symbol of victory and power. People look at him and his military experience and they see he is not afraid to come to Ukraine. It is so important that he came.\u201d<\/p>\nPrince Harry speaks on stage at the Superhumans veterans event.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFor this, and for the other causes he is passionate about, Harry accepts his \u201cfront and centre\u201d role and does it willingly. Encouraging those who have been seriously injured to find a purpose outside the military is one of his messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that I have been fortunate,\u201d he says. \u201cThe one thing that people miss when they hang up their uniform is purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing a sense of community and being part of a team, and of course the camaraderie and adrenaline. But at the heart of it is your job, your role is serving a purpose larger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
His work for Invictus, he says, has given him that after his military career. It \u201csaved me\u201d.<\/p>\nPrince Harry speaking with Nick Hopkins during a break after attending a Superhumans veterans event.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nChanging attitudes across society about disabled people is another core message.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing people with prosthetics and life-changing injuries is going to be the norm in Ukraine for the coming decades,\u201d he tells the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody should feel embarrassed or ashamed about their disabilities. It\u2019s about flipping from sympathy to admiration and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such is the need for men and women to fight the war, some of the wounded have even ended up back in the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the participants in the Invictus Games go back to active service,\u201d says Helen D\u2019Oyley, the IGF\u2019s chief growth officer. \u201cUkraine has become our key strategic priority because of the need there is here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the day, the team stops at Maidan Square in the heart of Kyiv, where an unofficial memorial to the dead has sprung up. It is a moving and ever growing field of photos of the dead, flags, messages and flowers.<\/p>\n
Harry wanted to lay a wreath, but as the crowds grow around him, he steps into the thick of the memorial to be on his own.<\/p>\nPrince Harry at the memorial to soldiers killed in the war. <\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI wanted to find a spot to lay the wreath in peace away from everyone. My God it\u2019s like a maze in there. I didn\u2019t appreciate how far back it went. Honestly, it is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. But also one of the most beautiful.\u201d The war, he suggests, could and should have been avoided. \u201cIt is all so unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
After this visit, the prince disappears. His car heads off away from the convoy for about an hour and when he returns to the group, he is coy and tight-lipped.<\/p>\n
The suspicion is that he has gone to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but neither he nor the president wants to admit it.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy is a champion of the Invictus Games and had made it known he wanted to meet the prince. The British government had made it known to Zelenskyy it would rather he did not. That was the chat in diplomatic circles, at least.<\/p>\n
The theory was that giving the rebel royal a platform might not be smart politics on a day that Britain\u2019s new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, was also in town.<\/p>\n
But only one Briton is making any headlines in Ukraine on Friday.<\/p>\nPrince Harry says goodbye, before boarding the train in Kyiv to begin his journey back to London. <\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u2018I am very happy with who I am and I like the life that I live<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe trip to Kyiv comes at the end of a busy week for Harry.<\/p>\n
From Monday to Thursday he was in the UK, undertaking a series of events related to the causes he supports. He also met his father, King Charles, for the first time since February 2024. On an overnight train heading back to Poland, Harry says he thinks the whole week has gone well, and feels hopeful about the future.<\/p>\n
During the trip, some elements of the tabloid press have published stories that left his team with their heads in their hands.<\/p>\n
It appears to make Harry more certain of the need to take on the papers who, he says, have unfairly targeted him and his family.<\/p>\n
The prince, along with Doreen Lawrence and Elton John among others, is suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.<\/p>\n
A trial is due to start in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I have enjoyed the week,\u201d says Harry. \u201cI have always loved the UK and I always will love the UK. It\u2019s been good to reconnect with the causes I am passionate about. I have been able to spend some time with people that I have known for so long. It is hard to do it from far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cIt is only in certain elements of the press where you see this talk about me being down or saying I am not smiling. This comes from people who think they know what I am thinking and how I am feeling. They are wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think parts of the British press want to believe that I am miserable, but I\u2019m not. I am very happy with who I am and I like the life that I live.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he hasn\u2019t always seemed cheerful, then that is hardly surprising, given what he has been going through, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have certainly had to deal with some very stressful events over the last four years. There has been the uncertainty and stress of the litigation and finding out certain things that have really, really hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he believes there is a disconnect between what is written about him by some commentators, and what most other people think.<\/p>\nPrince Harry after attending a Superhumans veterans event<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI feel a lot of support from the British public. Even now, when I feel like I have been destroyed by certain members of the British press.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt serves them to think that the British public feels the same way about me as they do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t feel that and I don\u2019t see that. For as long as I have known, certain elements of the British press have tried to speak on behalf of the nation. I think they are out of touch with the nation on lots of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hope to bring the public with them, but \u2026 I think the British public can speak and think for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would he like to spend more time in the UK? To bring his children one day, despite the issues over his security arrangements?<\/p>\n
\u201cYes I would. This week has definitely brought that closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry won\u2019t talk about his father, but he seems to suggest he wants, and needs, to see his father more often.<\/p>\n
Over the coming year, he says, \u201cthe focus really has to be on my dad\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harry mentions his wife, Meghan, only once by name, a reference to something she told him about how telling the truth \u201cis the most efficient way to live\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said \u2018just stick to the truth\u2019. It is the thing I always fall back on. Always.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you think like that, who would be stupid enough to lie? It takes up too much time and effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which brings him to the very public things he has said about his life; the interviews, the TV series and the book he wrote, Spare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that [speaking out] annoys some people and it goes against the narrative. The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cI don\u2019t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being called stubborn slightly rankles with him. \u201cIt\u2019s not stubbornness, it is having principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems he does not want to prolong any legal battles.<\/p>\n
He does not ever expect to get positive coverage from some quarters \u2013 a ceasefire is, perhaps, the best he can hope for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not about revenge, it is about accountability,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Nor does he want to prolong any divisions with his family.<\/p>\n
But in life, he says, \u201cyou cannot have reconciliation before you have truth\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harry, who turns 41 on Monday, appears a bit bemused by his popularity in Ukraine.<\/p>\nPrince Harry receives gifts during a Superhumans fundraising lunch at the Fairmont hotel in Kyiv.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPeople film Harry during his visit to Maidan Square.<\/span> Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBy the end of the visit he has so many bags of presents to take home, including a dagger hidden inside an ornate walking stick, they take up most of the free space in the back of the private jet that returns him to the UK.<\/p>\n
He puts it down to the fact he served 10 years in the army, and the way Ukrainians have adopted the ideas of the Invictus Foundation.<\/p>\n
He is told that Rudnieva thought part of the reason people liked him was because he is quite Ukrainian in his attitude to life: he does his own thing, in his own way.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know who else did that?\u201d says the prince. \u201cMy mum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s about midnight. It\u2019s raining. A small group is huddled around a lonely roadside cafe somewhere near the border between Poland and Ukraine, getting wet in the drizzle, sharing cartons of chips and bottles of beer. One of the bedraggled men wonders out loud why on earth the owner of the cafe would choose to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2022499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2022498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\u2018My-conscience-is-clear-Prince-Harry-on-Ukraine-his-family.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}