Prince Harry travelled to Kyiv this week in a show of solidarity with Ukraine as the country's war with Russia enters its fourth year, attending a major security forum and visiting frontline demining teams working to make contaminated land safe again.
The Duke of Sussex arrived by train and participated in the Kyiv Independent Security Forum, where he met combat medic Yuliia Paievska, among other notable figures. In a speech, Harry addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, stating that no nation wishes to see further human losses, while praising Ukrainians for their resilience in the face of a conflict that began with Russia's full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.
On 24 April, Harry visited demining teams from HALO Trust, a leading humanitarian landmine clearance organisation, near Bucha — a town northwest of Kyiv that became a symbol of the war's devastation following the withdrawal of Russian forces in 2022. He observed and tested equipment used to detect and neutralise landmines and unexploded ordnance, including systems that combine drone imagery with artificial intelligence to locate explosives more rapidly, as well as digital mapping tools used to chart affected zones. He also saw robotic devices designed to safely neutralise tripwires, describing the technology as a significant advance in both safety and efficiency. HALO Trust reports that more than 13,000 hazardous areas have been recorded in Ukraine since 2022, and over 29,000 square kilometres of farmland have been cleared.
Harry drew a direct parallel with the work of his late mother, Princess Diana, who famously walked through active minefields in Angola in 1997 to draw global attention to the humanitarian toll of landmines — an act that helped galvanise international support for the Ottawa Treaty banning their use. Large areas of Ukraine, particularly around Kyiv, remain heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance from early stages of the conflict.
The visit underscores Harry's long-standing commitment to causes affecting military personnel and veterans. He founded the Invictus Games Foundation in 2014, an international sporting event for wounded, injured, and sick service members and veterans. By returning the spotlight to the scale of Ukraine's mine contamination problem, Harry's trip highlights a slow-moving humanitarian crisis that persists long after the fighting moves on — one that threatens lives and livelihoods for years to come.