As Oleksiy Prytula, a Ukrainian war veteran, was about to set off down the mountain a stranger came over and helped to drape his yellow and blue flag over him.
Prytula, who had lost both of his legs to a cluster munition in September 2022, was competing in a skiing race at the Invictus Games and the person who helped him was Prince Harry, the founder of the event for injured veterans.
That was the start of a chain of events that led ultimately to the Duke of Sussex’s surprise trip to Ukraine on Thursday, where he visited a rehabilitation centre and met with those who had been wounded and maimed while defending their country from Russian aggression.
The Superhumans Centre — where Prytula, 45, received treatment — provides free prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and psychological help to those in need.
The western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where the centre is located, is 300 miles from the front lines but has been the target of sporadic missile and drone strikes. Last September, a mother and her three daughters were among seven people killed in the deadliest attack on the city to date.
Harry, 40, is thought to have travelled to Ukraine from London when he had attended a two-day court hearing to appeal against the government’s decision to strip him of his state-funded security protection after he quit working as a member of the royal family in 2020 and left for California.
For security reasons details of the trip were made public only after the prince had left the country. Ukraine’s airspace has been closed to civilian flights since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and he is understood to have flown to Poland before driving across the border to Lviv escorted by police.
The Duke was welcomed to the rehabilitation facility by Olga Rudeva, the chief executive of Superhumans, who he had met in February at the Invictus Games in Whistler, Canada, where Prytula was competing.
She was said to have “charmed” the prince during that initial meeting when she presented him with a bracelet bearing his initials and the rehabilitation centre’s motto: “He who saves one life, saves the whole world.”
Harry, who appeared to be wearing the bracelet on his visit, spent several hours meeting injured Ukrainian soldiers and their surgeons. He also met Eddy Scott, 28, a British volunteer evacuation driver, whose vehicle was struck by a drone near Pokrovsk in January. He lost an arm and a leg.
Andrey Stavnitser, the founder of Superhumans, said Harry was “incredibly responsive and emotionally generous” during the visit. “He hugged everyone, he found a compliment for everyone, he went through the tour of the centre attentively and with genuine interest.”
The prince, who was accompanied by British athletes who had participated in Invictus over the past decade, also visited the centre’s operating theatre, where a veteran was undergoing an operation on his eardrum to try to restore hearing.
He later met Natalia Kalmykova, Ukraine’s minister of veterans affairs. “This is my first visit to Ukraine and it certainly won’t be the last,” Harry said, adding that the care he had seen at the facility was “absolutely mindblowing”.
“I want to remind Ukraine that the world stands with them, and Invictus will be a partner with Ukraine and with the Ukrainian Invictus team for as long as needed.”
Harry, who spent a decade in the army, founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans the challenge of competing in sports events similar to the Paralympics.
The Duke is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine since the full-scale invasion after Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, travelled there last year. Last month, Prince William met Ukrainian refugees during a two-day visit to Estonia.
It is understood that the Duke of Sussex was visiting Ukraine in a private capacity without the involvement of the foreign office. The UK government did not arrange or facilitate any part of the trip. It is understood that Harry then travelled back to his home in California.
When asked if Harry had informed the King of his travel plans in advance, a Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment.
