Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.
The visit comes after Harry made a solo trip to Britain earlier in the week during which he reunited with his father, King Charles III, for their first face-to-face meeting in 19 months.
The news of the surprise trip was first broken by The Guardian, which said it accompanied Harry on the train ride to Kyiv.
According to The Guardian report, Harry made the visit after an invitation from the Ukrainian government, and is expected to detail new initiatives with his Invictus Games foundation to support the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainians.
Harry served nearly a decade in the Army, and like many royals, is involved with various causes and patronages of charities – including ones that help soldiers.
In 2014, he founded the Invictus Games – an international sporting competition for wounded veterans and members of the military. He has also met with wounded veterans in other countries, including during a tour of Nigeria last year.
He has visited Ukraine before, making an unannounced trip earlier this April to meet with war victims in the western city Lviv.
On Wednesday, while he was in Britain, his office said his foundation would donate $500,000 to support children from Gaza and Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The British royal family has outspoken in its support for Ukraine as it battles Moscow’s invasion. The Duchess of Edinburgh, Sophie, traveled to Ukraine last year to support survivors of war-related sexual violence, while Prince William visited the Ukrainian-Polish border in 2023 to meet British and Polish troops.
More recently in March, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Zelensky was warmly welcomed in London in a summit attended by many Western leaders.
In a highly symbolic move, King Charles III granted Zelensky an hourlong audience, days after inviting Trump to a second state visit.
A study in June by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that Ukraine has sustained nearly 400,000 casualties since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, with between 60,000 and 100,000 deaths. Russia was forecast to hit the 1 million casualty mark this summer, said the study.
Although Kyiv does not disclose its own combat losses in any detail and Moscow is believed to drastically underestimate its own casualties, the CSIS figures are in line with British and United States intelligence assessments.
Russia launched more drone strikes at Ukraine overnight into Friday, though not in Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian military and various regional governments.
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