Prince Harry said wounded Ukrainian veterans are “role models” during an unannounced weekend visit to Lviv, where he met patients and staff at the Superhumans Center.
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Britain’s Prince Harry, a former British Army soldier who served in Afghanistan, wrapped up an unannounced weekend visit to Ukraine on Sunday with stops in Lviv focused on wounded service members and civilians.
In Lviv, Harry met with patients and staff at the Superhumans Center, an orthopedic clinic that treats wounded military personnel and civilians. Speaking during trials for the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event he founded to support veterans, Harry said, “We’ve invested in them before they put the uniform on and we must invest with them once the uniform comes off.”
During the activities, Harry watched wheelchair rugby on Saturday and also took part in pickleball, teaming up with a player with an amputated arm. He played against two men who had each lost a leg.
Harry met Oleksandr, a 49-year-old veteran from Odesa with an amputated leg, who said of the Duke of Sussex: “He talks to people, he isn’t like a royal personage. He loves ordinary people. He is completely different.”
Harry also praised the resilience of Ukrainians and said he hoped the war would end soon. “The rest of the world will continue to support you,” he said. “In my mind you’ve already won.”
Earlier during the trip, Harry met Kostiantyn Vlasenko, described as the first Ukrainian airlifted by drone from the front lines near the village of Synkivka in the Kharkiv region. Harry called Vlasenko “impressive,” and the soldier replied, “stubborn.”
According to the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vlasenko was seriously wounded in combat in February, with injuries that eventually forced the amputation of both his feet, and he continued to relay information to troops while hiding from Russian forces for 232 days. Zelenskyy’s office says Vlasenko was flown out in early October, and later received the Hero of Ukraine honour, the country’s highest distinction.
This was Harry’s fourth visit to Ukraine since the war began, and his second time in Lviv to meet with patients and staff at the Superhumans Center.
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