Prince Harry visits Kyiv to back Ukraine and spotlight mine clearance
The trip was intended to show support as the war enters its fourth year since Russia’s full scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Prince Harry travelled by train and attended the Kyiv Independent Security Forum, where he met figures including combat medic Yuliia Paievska. In a speech, he called for an end to the violence and addressed Vladimir Putin directly, saying no nation wants to see further human losses, while praising Ukrainians for their resilience. On 24 April, Prince Harry visited demining teams from HALO Trust near Bucha, where he observed and tested equipment used to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance. He was shown systems combining drone imagery and artificial intelligence to detect explosives more quickly, along with digital mapping tools to identify impact zones. The organisation says more than 13,000 hazardous areas have been recorded and over 29,000 km² of farmland cleared in Ukraine since 2022. Prince Harry also saw robotic devices used to neutralise tripwires, describing the technology as safer and more efficient, in a comparison with the work of Princess Diana in Angola in 1997. Large areas of Ukraine remain contaminated by unexploded ordnance from fighting around Kyiv in 2022. The visit also reflects his long standing support for injured service personnel through the Invictus Games Foundation, which he founded in 2014.
