Prince Harry’s surprise arrival in Ukraine has reportedly frustrated his elder brother William and left him fuming at Palace officials who denied him a similar trip.
The Duke of Sussex met dozens of wounded soldiers in the Ukrainian city of Lviv last Thursday.
That saw Harry facing accusations of hypocrisy after braving the fraught conditions, having previously claimed he and his family could not be safe in the UK without taxpayer-funded police bodyguards.
And security concerns are reported to have stymied William’s hopes of making his own visit to Ukraine as it fends against the three-year Russian invasion.
The Prince of Wales is said to have voiced his frustration to Kensington Palace staff who urged him against arriving in the war-torn nation.
William did pay a visit last month to Estonia, one of Ukraine’s neighbours, where he donned combat gear and a beret when greeting troops at a Nato base.
But the Mail reported today how Palace sources pointed out William’s ‘long-hoped’ keenness to visit Ukraine – and that he was ‘rankled’ by Harry’s appearance there.
William, meanwhile, last week travelled to France‘s capital to watch his football club Aston Villa play Paris St Germain in the Champions League.
Prince Harry visited the Ukrainian city of Lviv last week in a surprise appearance
Prince William, pictured visiting Estonia last month, is reportedly frustrated at being denied by security officials a visit to Ukraine
Prince Harry (left) and William (right) are seen together in July 2021
Security officials are said to have ‘firmly rejected’ the prospect of William visiting Ukraine, which has been suffering since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The two brothers have been increasingly estranged following the decision by Harry and his wife Meghan to quit frontline royal duties and move to the US in January 2020.
Harry then published his critical memoir Spare in 2023, in which he described disputes between the siblings – including an allegation of a physical tussle.
The Duke of Sussex’s book saw him accuse William of pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over his wife Meghan.
It also claimed William teased Harry about his panic attacks and that King Charles put his own interests above his second son, while Harry also referred to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
William’s visit to Estonia last month saw him dressed in combat gear and a beret as he clambered into a British tank at a Nato base in Estonia just 90 miles from Russia.
He stopped in at Tapa Camp, just under two hours drive from the border, in his role as Colonel-in-Chief of the Mercian Regiment as they prepared to undertake a six-month posting to the region.
Operation Cabrit is a major multi-national Nato operational exercise designed to show the strength of the organisation through a united commitment to collective security and defence.
Prince Harry is seen speaking to Ukrainian war veterans at a centre near Lviv on April 10
Prince William is pictured getting off a Challenger 2 battle tank while attending a field training session on his visit to a Nato base in Estonia last month
Prince Harry’s surprise visit to war-torn Ukraine
