For the last three years, presidents, prime ministers, movie actors, rock stars and writers have traveled to Ukraine, seeking to show solidarity with a country under assault from its neighbor, Russia. Add Prince Harry to that list.
On Thursday, Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, made an unannounced visit to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, where he toured a rehabilitation facility for military and civilian victims of the conflict. He spoke with patients and staff members, according to a spokesman for his office.
Harry’s office confirmed the visit only after he had left Ukraine, reflecting the fact that Lviv is still periodically targeted with missiles by Russia. Earlier this week, he was in London for a court hearing in a dispute over the withdrawal of automatic taxpayer-financed security for him and his family when they visit Britain.
Harry’s visit to the rehabilitation clinic is in keeping with one of his most cherished causes: casualties of war. A combat veteran himself, he founded the Invictus Games, a sports competition for injured military veterans, in 2014. He was joined on the visit by a delegation from the Invictus Games Foundation, after being invited by Olga Rudneva, the chief executive of the clinic, which is known as the Superhumans Center.
The center offers reconstructive surgery, prosthetics, and psychological counseling — free of charge — to war victims. During his tour, in which Harry spoke to an injured child and men who had lost limbs, he also met with Ukraine’s minister of veterans affairs, Natalia Kalmykova.
Harry’s trip coincided with the end of a four-day state visit to Italy by Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla. That raised questions about optics among some royal watchers, who noted that members of the royal family generally avoid upstaging monarchs during their overseas travels. Buckingham Palace did not comment.
The king’s visit, in any event, drew headlines of its own after he and Camilla paid an unexpected visit to Pope Francis, who is recuperating from double pneumonia and a near-fatal respiratory illness. The couple had planned a state visit to the Vatican, but it was scrapped because of the pope’s health.
Charles won praise for a speech to the Italian Parliament, which he sprinkled liberally with Italian phrases and some pretty decent lines. “It was the Romans who gave Britons the idea of putting a king’s head on coins, so I am especially grateful to them,” he said to laughs.
The king’s spirited performance was a reassuring sign after his brief hospitalization in London last month for side effects from his treatment for cancer. A palace official played down that episode as a “minor bump in a road that is very much heading in the right direction.” At times in Italy, though, Charles struck an elegiac tone.
“I am here today with one purpose,” he declared. “To reaffirm the deep friendship between the United Kingdom and Italy, and to pledge to do all in my power to strengthen that friendship even further in the time that is granted to me as king.”
In his son’s case, the timing of the Ukraine trip seemed driven by the date of the court hearing in London, over which he had no control. Harry, 40, is challenging the loss of automatic paid police protection for him and his family after he and his wife, Meghan, withdrew from royal duties in 2020.
He lost a previous stage of the case in February of last year, but a judge granted him permission to appeal the ruling on limited grounds. It was not clear how quickly the Court of Appeals judges would rule on his appeal.
Like his father’s, Harry’s travels came at a difficult moment, amid a bitter dispute between him and the chair of another of his charities, Sentebale, which works in Africa. The chair, Sophia Chandauka, has accused the prince of harassment and bullying to try to eject her from her post. Harry has stoutly denied the allegations, and Britain’s Charity Commission, an independent watchdog, said it was investigating whether trustees, including Ms. Chandauka, had fulfilled their legal duties.
“What has transpired over the last week has been heartbreaking to witness,” Harry said in a joint statement last week with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, with whom he founded the charity, “especially when such blatant lies hurt those who have invested decades in this shared goal.”
