Prince Harry has revealed he asked both Meghan Markle and the UK Government for clearance before making his surprise trip to Ukraine.
The Duke of Sussex said that after a “chance meeting” in New York with Olga Rudnieva, founder of the Superhumans Trauma Centre in Lviv, she suggested the most meaningful support he could offer would be a visit to Kyiv.
“I had to check with my wife and the British Government to make sure it was OK,” he said.
Once Meghan and officials in London approved, Harry received a formal invitation from the Ukrainian Government and headed to the capital, where key sites were struck by Russian missiles last weekend.
Prince Harry said he needed Meghan’s permission to visit Ukraine in bizarre admission
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GETTY / REUTERS
The visit followed his earlier trip to western Ukraine in April, when he toured the Superhumans centre, which treats amputees.
Harry, who founded the Invictus Games in 2014 for wounded service personnel, is in Kyiv with his Invictus Games Foundation team to promote rehabilitation for those injured in the war.
He said new programmes would be announced to extend support across the country, where about 130,000 people are estimated to have been left permanently disabled by the conflict.
“We cannot stop the war, but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process,” he told the Guardian.
“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 Duke travelled to Ukraine shortly after a four-day stay in the UK, during which he met King Charles for the first time in 19 months and attended several charity events, including the WellChild Awards.
He also announced a £1.1 million donation to Children in Need.
Prince Harry also said he needed permission from the UK Government to visit Ukraine
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PA
During that visit, Harry spent nearly an hour with the King at Clarence House but did not meet Prince William. Relations between the brothers remain strained.
The Prince of Wales has himself shown support for Ukraine, visiting British troops in Poland near the border in 2023 and thanking them for “defending our freedoms”.
William also travelled to Estonia to meet soldiers and Ukrainian refugees and was reportedly keen to visit Ukraine but was prevented by “security concerns”.
Harry’s trip comes amid heightened regional tension. Two days before his arrival, three Russian drones were shot down after entering Polish airspace, prompting NATO members to send weapons, troops and air defence systems to reinforce the alliance’s eastern flank. A UN Security Council session on the incident is scheduled for today.