Prince Harry made a surprise visit to war-torn Ukraine where he met with war victims. Prior to this visit, he had spent two days in court in London battling for his security.
During his visit, the Duke of Sussex went to the Superhumans Center in Lviv, an orthopedic clinic that provides treatment and rehabilitation to injured military personnel and civilians.
Photos shared last night showed the royal with a smile ear-to-ear, posing with dozens of wounded soldiers.
One image showed the Duke with a solemn expression as he chatted to a visibly injured young person.
This visit in western Ukraine, an area often hit by Russian missile attacks, was kept secret until Harry had left the country.
The Duke travelled to Ukraine after spending two days in the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where he is appealing the decision to strip him of his government-funded protection.
It came after he quit working as a member of the Royal Family in 2020 following Megxit.
The Duke flew 5,000 miles from his home in California to attend the two-day hearing to win automatic state security for him, his wife Meghan Markle and their two children Archie and Lilibet.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, has long made helping injured soldiers one of his most prominent causes – founding the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans the chance to compete in sports events similar to the Paralympics.
Prince Harry poses with a person who was wounded in war with Russia at the Superhumans Center
The Duke takes photos with people who were wounded in war with Russia at the Superhumans Center in Ukraine
The prince was joined in Ukraine by a contingent from the Invictus Games Foundation, including four veterans who have been through similar rehabilitation experiences.
The centre offers prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge.
While in London’s High Court this week, Harry claimed he was ‘singled out’ for ‘inferior treatment’ when the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) stripped him of his top-level security in February 2020 after he moved out of the UK.
But Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Home Office, said it had discretion to strip his guaranteed full time police security without consulting the Risk Management Board (RMB) quango.
‘RMB risk analysis is the usual approach in usual cases,’ he told the High Court today. ‘But there is nothing about the appellant’s [Prince Harry’s] announcement in January 2020 that he was to step back from his role in the Royal family, and spend most of the time abroad, that was usual.’
The California-based royal is challenging the dismissal of his High Court legal action against the Home Office.
Harry just spent two days in the London High Court fighting for his security after quitting the Royal Family
It stems from the decision by Ravec that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the country of his birth because he stepped down as a full-time royal. The case has cost the British taxpayer £500,000 so far.
Prince Harry’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima KC insisted that Ravec failed to follow its own guidelines and should have commissioned an assessment of the Duke’s security needs from the Risk Management Board (RMB).
The prince is no stranger to war, having served two tours in Afghanistan, where he flew missions as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner.
Harry, 40, is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine. His aunt, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, became the first British royal to travel to the country since Russia’s 2022 invasion when she made an unannounced visit to Kyiv last year.
The royal family has been outspoken in their support for Ukraine. King Charles warmly greeted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support at his estate on the North Sea coast just two days after his extraordinary dressing down by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
Harry’s older brother, Prince William, met with Ukrainian refugees during a two day visit to Estonia last month.
