Prince Harry makes surprise visit to war-hit Ukraine promising support to injured

Prince Harry has flown to Ukraine to pledge support for the country's injured in a surprise visit following his four-day trip to the UK.

It was widely expected that the Duke of Sussex, 40, would catch a flight to Los Angeles on Thursday night following a few days across the Atlantic. But, instead, he was catching an overnight train to Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where he has said he wants to do "everything possible" to help following an invitation from a charity chief.

The Prince, a passionate supporter of wounded veterans, was accompanied by a team from the Invictus Games Foundation, and is set to detail new initiatives to support rehabilitation efforts.

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The foundation, he told The Guardian, aims to eventually be able to provide help to all areas of the war-torn nation, with 130,000 people estimated to have been left with permanent disabilities. Speaking to the publication while on the train, he 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 invited to the country by Olga Rudnieva, the founder and CEO of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv. The royal had previously visited the centre, which cares for war-wounded veterans, specifically amputees, in April during another surprise trip.

He acknowledged that, while he could not stop the war, Ms Rudnieva told him the biggest impact he could have would be visiting the country's capital.

Before he was able to, however, he said he had to check with Meghan Markle, his wife, and the British government - then he received an official invitation. He said: “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.”

The Prince has another packed trip ahead of him, the second in one week following his flying, charity-facing visit to the UK, with a series of official appearances on the cards. They include a visit to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, an opportunity to spend time with 200 veterans also invited to the nation, and a meeting with Ukrainian PM Yulia Svyrydenko.