Support for the national Invictus Games
Lviv Oblast Governor Maksym Kozytskyi reported that Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, visited Lviv on November 15 to support Ukrainian veterans and service members competing in the national Invictus Games. The Duke attended wheelchair rugby competitions and met with many Ukrainian participants who use adaptive sports as part of their recovery from injuries related to the war. Around 500 veterans and service members from across Ukraine registered for this competition. This event helps select a 60-member Ukrainian team to compete at the international Invictus Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, in 2027. I find the scale of the competition, involving 500 registered service members, to be the most meaningful part of the visit.
The Duke, who is the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, princess of Wales, is fifth in the line of succession to the British throne. He founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to support wounded, injured, and sick military personnel and veterans through sports. This November 15 visit marks his fourth trip to Ukraine since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022, following his April 2025 visit to the Superhumans rehabilitation center and his April 2026 trip to Kyiv and Bucha. His travels in 2026 included attending the Kyiv Security Forum.
History of visits and local views
The Duke’s travel to Lviv follows his April 2025 visit to the Superhumans rehabilitation center and his April 2026 trip to Kyiv and Bucha. He also visited the country in September 2025. Olena Goncharova, a Special Correspondent for the Kyiv Independent based in Edmonton, Alberta, reports that Harry is probably feeling under-appreciated back in the UK again. Goncharova previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent for the Kyiv Post, where she first joined as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She also holds a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Goncharova compares Harry’s visit to the way Boris Johnson used to visit when he was feeling the heat back home. She also notes that both Harry and Johnson are less popular in the UK than they are outside the country, similar to how President Zelenskyy tends to be less popular in Ukraine than outside.
