Prince Harry has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, arriving in Kyiv by train in the early hours of Thursday morning to attend the Kyiv Security Conference and deliver a message of solidarity to a country he said the world must not forget.
The Duke of Sussex, 41, travelled to the Ukrainian capital after flying to Poland and making the overnight rail journey to Kyiv — the same route used by most Western visitors to the country given the security restrictions on air travel. His arrival comes just one week after Russia launched what has been described as its deadliest aerial assault on Kyiv so far this year, with a wave of drone and missile strikes killing 17 people and injuring more than 100 across Ukraine. Four died in the capital alone, including a 12-year-old boy.
Speaking to ITV News upon his arrival, Harry said his purpose was straightforward. “I’m here to remind people back home and around the world what Ukraine is up against and to support the people and partners doing extraordinary work every hour of every day in incredibly tough conditions,” he said. He praised Ukrainians for “bravely and successfully defending Europe’s eastern flank” and said it was vital that the significance of that effort was not lost on the wider world.
In a speech to conference delegates later on Thursday, Harry is expected to go further, telling Ukrainians directly: “The world sees you and respects you.” He will also argue that Ukraine’s fight extends beyond a territorial dispute. “This is a war about values, not just territory,” he will say.
It is Harry’s second visit to Kyiv. He previously travelled to the city in September last year as part of his work supporting Ukraine’s large community of injured veterans through the Invictus Games. In April 2024, he also visited Lviv in western Ukraine, where photographs showed him meeting wounded soldiers and spending time with injured young people.
The visit comes at the end of a busy week for the Duke, who spent the previous week in Australia alongside his wife Meghan on a tour that generated considerable controversy at home. He also quietly arranged for a wreath to be sent to the grave of his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle to mark what would have been her 100th birthday on Tuesday, though he did not attend the family’s celebrations at Buckingham Palace.
Harry served ten years in the British Army, including two tours of Afghanistan, and has made the welfare of injured veterans one of the most consistent threads of his public life since leaving frontline military service.
