The Princess Royal made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Tuesday to highlight the traumatic experiences of children living on the frontline of the conflict, Buckingham Palace has stated.
During her visit, Princess Anne left a toy bear at a memorial dedicated to children killed since Russia's full-scale invasion and spoke with young individuals reportedly abducted from their homes by Russian forces.
She also embraced discussions on the UK's support for Ukraine and its ongoing resilience with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This official visit was conducted at the request of the Foreign Office, occurring only weeks after her nephew, Prince Harry, visited Kyiv to meet war-wounded veterans.
Anne, sister to the King, paid her respects at the Children's Memorial alongside First Lady Olena Zelenska, who inaugurated the memorial in Kharkiv.
Additionally, she toured the Child Rights Protection Centre, an establishment aimed at supporting children affected by the war, where she interacted with children who had been reunited with their families and the dedicated staff working to reunite more children.
Since February 2022, Kyiv estimates that at least 19,500 Ukrainian children have been deported and forcibly relocated to Russia and Russian-occupied regions, with only 1,605 reported to have returned home so far, per the government’s Children of War database.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, in 2023 for their alleged role in the unlawful deportation of these children, which Russia denies, claiming it has acted to protect children from war zones.
Furthermore, Anne's visit coincided with the UK imposing new sanctions against those allegedly involved in attempts to forcibly deport and indoctrinate Ukrainian children.
During her trip, she also met with female police and armed forces officers dedicated to protecting women and children, spoke to injured veterans suffering from conflict-related trauma at a rehabilitation center, and visited significant cultural sites such as St Sophia's Cathedral and the Kherson Cultural Exhibition that captures the narrative of a southern city reclaimed by Ukrainian forces.
This marked the second visit of a Royal to Ukraine in under a month, following Prince Harry's visit in September. The Royal Family has consistently voiced support for Ukraine since the beginning of the war over three years ago, with King Charles receiving President Zelensky at his Sandringham estate and emphasizing the importance of standing against tyranny during recent state visits.
