‘There is light at the end of the tunnel’, Harry says on surprise Ukraine trip

The Duke of Sussex said there is “light at the end of the tunnel” when asked for advice for ex-service personnel during a surprise trip to Ukraine.

Harry travelled to Kyiv with a team from his Invictus Games Foundation following an invitation from the Ukrainian government and Olga Rudneva, chief executive of the Superhumans Centre, an orthopaedic clinic and rehabilitation centre for adults and children affected by the war in Ukraine.

His trip comes after spending several days in the UK, where he reunited with his father the King for their first face-to-face meeting for more than a year.

In Ukraine, the duke participated in a panel discussion at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War during which he paid tribute to “the wives and mothers who keep their loved ones on the straight and narrow, they deserve as much respect as anyone who serves”.

Asked about advice for those leaving military service and who may miss the camaraderie, Harry said: “You will feel lost at times, like you lack purpose, but however dark those days are, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“You just need to look for it, because there will always be someone — a mother, father, sibling, friend, or comrade — there to pick you up.”

He added: “Don’t stay silent. Silence will hold you in the dark.

“Open up to your friends and family, because in doing so you give them permission to do the same.”

Harry also met privately with Ukraine’s minister for veteran affairs, Natalia Kalmykova, to discuss the ways the Invictus Games Foundation and the international community can improve support for wounded, injured and sick serving personnel and veterans with life-changing injuries who are returning home.

He was hosted at a fundraising lunch in support of the Superhumans Centre in Lviv, which he visited in April this year, where he met patients and medical professionals to learn about the services that are provided there.

The duke told The Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.

“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 ended his visit at Maidan Square where he laid a wreath to honour Ukrainian veterans.

On Wednesday, the Sussexes’ charitable foundation Archewell announced it had donated 500,000 US dollars (£369,000) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.

The grants from Archewell will be used to help the World Health Organisation with medical evacuations and also to fund work developing prosthetics for youngsters seriously hurt in the conflicts.

The announcement coincided with Harry’s visit to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, where he heard more about its work focusing on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.