Harry says he ‘will always be part of royal family’ and claims he is still ‘working’

Prince Harry declared he will always be part of the royal family, while rejecting the suggestion he is ‘not a working royal’.

The Duke of Sussex was speaking on a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he has already delivered an impassioned speech appealing to both Vladimir Putin and the ‘American leadership’ to stop the war.

Harry said he was ‘not here as a politician’ but as ‘a soldier who understands service’ and a ‘humanitarian’, echoing remarks made by his mother Princess Diana during a trip to Angola in 1997.

Speaking to ITV News, he said: ‘I will always be part of the royal family and I’m here working and doing the very thing that I was born to do, and I enjoy doing it.

‘I enjoy being able to do these trips and come and support the people that I’ve met before, the friends that I’ve made, and hopefully bringing attention to issues that for one reason or another drop out of the news because something else has popped up.’

Harry’s trip comes just days before his father the King begins a major state visit to America to see President Donald Trump, against the backdrop of transatlantic tensions over the Iran conflict.

Asked if he believes any of the comments he has made during his time in Ukraine will impact the state visit, he said: ‘Not at all.’

It was a rare input on global matters from the duke when he implored the US to ‘honour its international treaty obligations’ in its ‘enduring role in global security’ during his speech in Kyiv.

Responding, Mr Trump said: ‘I know one thing, Prince Harry is not speaking for the UK, that’s for sure. I think I am speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry.

‘But I appreciate his advice very much.’

Harry has said people need to ‘speak up’.

He told ITV News: ‘As a global community we need to feel empowered to be able to speak truth to power. It’s really that simple.

‘It’s bad enough in today’s world feeling gagged and saying that you can’t say these things and can’t say that and everything becomes political. I fundamentally disagree with that.

‘What we are witnessing and what we are seeing is a humanitarian catastrophe in multiple parts of the world and people are speaking up and people will continue to speak up and I would encourage more people to do the speaking up.’

Harry’s unannounced visit – his third trip to Ukraine since the war began in 2022 – comes days after he finished a tour to Australia with his wife, the Duchess of Sussex.

He stopped in the UK on his journey to Ukraine, but only to transit through and he did not leave airside.

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