LVIV (The Thursday Times) — Britain’s Prince Harry made a surprise visit to Lviv in western Ukraine on Sunday, meeting wounded veterans at the country’s national Invictus Games and telling them he believes they will win the war. Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi reported the visit, which is Harry’s fourth to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
The 42-year-old Duke of Sussex watched wheelchair rugby players compete for places in Ukraine’s team for next year’s Invictus Games in Birmingham, England. About 500 veterans and service members have registered to take part in the national competition, which will select a 60-member squad, reportedly the largest Ukraine has sent.
“Every single time I come back to Ukraine, I feel welcome, I feel warmth,” Harry said, adding that he had “taken a risk to come here”. “You’re going to win the war and then you’re going to be set up for success,” he told the veterans.
A conference for war medics
He also spoke at a conference for medics in Lviv organised by Superhumans, a clinic that specialises in rehabilitating people wounded in the war. Ukraine has about 1.4 million combat veterans, more than 10 percent of whom have disabilities. Harry said Ukrainian specialists were now working under wartime conditions that other countries had not faced, and that the lessons learned there “must be heard around the world”.
At a rugby game, Harry hugged Valery Odainyk, a leg amputee who competed at the Invictus Games in Canada last year and is still serving in the Ukrainian forces. “So when do you find time to train?” Harry asked. Odainyk told him his involvement in disability sport “all started and continues with the Invictus Games”.
A promise for after the war
“When the war is over and when Ukraine wins, we will be ready to support you in holding an Invictus Games,” Harry told the veterans. He founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to support wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans through adaptive sport.
Harry previously visited the Superhumans centre in Lviv in April 2025 and returned to Ukraine that September. In April this year he went to Kyiv and Bucha. His latest trip comes as Ukraine’s president says satellite speed limits are letting Russian strikes through on the front line.
