Ukraine’s Invictus athletes will head back to the frontline after taking heart from Prince Harry who has expressed his support for their fight in two meetings at the games.

Most of the medal-winning team will return to active duty on the same day that they arrive home from The Hague, where the Duke of Sussex has been an ‘inspiration’ for the veterans.

Inna Draganchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Veteran Affairs, said that their triumphs in the Netherlands are ‘not just for medals but to show the truth’ about the Russian invasion.

Ms Draganchuk spoke to Metro.co.uk last night after she and the team met the Invictus Games figurehead and American athletes at the US embassy in the host city.

‘Prince Harry is a real inspiration for the Ukrainian team because he is so open and kind,’ she said.

‘It’s something which is absolutely impossible for every team member not to feel. It’s not about policy or diplomacy, it’s about his personal support for the Ukrainian fight. It is something he is natural and sincere about.

‘It’s very important for him to be dedicated to the Ukrainians’ victory.

‘He always underlined that he admires the Ukrainians’ fight for their state.

‘We met on different occasions but the message remained the same; how strongly he supports our nation in defending our country from Russia.

‘He’s a real inspiration for Ukrainian people.’

The Duke of Sussex met Ms Draganchuk, who lives in Kyiv, after the Ukrainian athletes made a collective decision to take part in the fifth games, which are for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women.

On the first day of the team’s involvement in the week-long event, which is being covered by the BBC, they won a gold, silver and two bronze medals – despite having had no regular training.

The prince, who is patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, met the team on Friday and again last night, on both occasions expressing his heartfelt support at receptions hosted by the American embassy.

Ukraine has sent a delegation of 63 people, joining 19 other nations, at a time when reports of atrocities and war crimes emerge from their homeland on a daily basis. Most of the team have taken frontline roles in the face of the Russian invasion, which began eight weeks ago.

Yuliia Paievska, a paramedic known as Taira, was meant to be among the athletes but was taken prisoner by Russian troops four weeks ago.

Her daughter Anna-Sofia Puzanova, who turns 19 today, has travelled to The Hague and has asked the captors to ‘bring my mum back to me’.

‘Nearly all of our team are engaged in defending our country on the frontline and it was not an easy decision for them to leave their positions,’ Ms Draganchuk said.

‘The main motivation is not to talk just about sport but to bring the truth about this war and about Russia in the war. Our competitors are fighting not just for medals but to show the truth to the world.’

Ms Draganchuk spoke at the end of the first full day of the games, which aim to use the power of sport to inspire rehabilitation and generate respect for sick and injured servicemen and women.

In Saturday’s opening ceremony at The Hague’s Zuiderpark, the prince paid tribute to the ‘bravery’ of the Ukrainian contingent, with his wife Meghan Markle exclaiming ‘Slava Ukraini’, which means ‘Glory to Ukraine’.

For Ukraine’s athletes, war is an immediate reality, with their participation set against a backdrop that includes the besieged southern city of Mariupol still holding out amid desperate humanitarian conditions.

Ms Draganchuk echoed comments by the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that his government has ‘substantial evidence’ to show Russia committed ‘genocide’ before pulling out of areas north of Kyiv.

World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, would like to see Vladimir Putin in The Hague on trial for war crimes, including the reported murders of hundreds of civilians around the capital.

‘The only thing our team members wish for is to not have to wear military equipment, only sporting equipment,’ Ms Draganchuk said.

‘They need to fight to be represented here.

‘They need to fight for their families, for their land, against Russia, which enters our territory and tries to kill all Ukrainians.

‘So this war by Russia against Ukraine is not about military philosophy. The only philosophy of Russia is the genocide of Ukrainians.

‘It’s actually what we have seen and what other people have seen when they have entered the temporarily occupied cities of Ukraine. This is not about policy, it’s about our Ukrainian identity.

‘We don’t know what will be when we go back to our country.

‘Who of us will be raped, who of us will be killed. No matter who you are, you have the same possibility to be killed or raped by Russian forces.

‘This is the only truth that we have.’

Ukraine’s involvement in a competition 2,000km from the country, where Russia continues to bombard key towns and cities, epitomises the indomitable spirit that has seen the defending forces mount fierce resistance against Moscow’s massed firepower.

Ms Draganchuk, who is originally from the eastern Donetsk region, is among team members whose loved ones remain in the line of fire while they represent their homeland on the world stage.

‘Ukrainians have never been so united as we are now,’ she said.

‘All our veterans who are making a stand, hand-in-hand, are ordinary people who want to live an ordinary life and give flowers to their wives and take their children to school instead of this fight to survive.

‘Instead of this normal life, they are having to fight to survive.’

Like other Ukrainian ministers, Ms Draganchuk, 37, has also taken on a wartime role, working as a manager in medical logistics.

After the games conclude on Friday, most team members will head back to the frontline on the same day they arrive home.

The athletes’ international mission, however, will not be over.

‘They feel they are fighting for the whole world,’ Ms Draganchuk said.

‘Ukraine is not the first and will not be the last state of interest to Russia.

‘A motivation for us is to protect the entire civilised world.’

This year could be the last time that the blue-and-yellow flag appears at the annual games, the minister told Metro.co.uk.

‘Ukraine can only participate in the games if we defeat Russia,’ she said.

‘If we do not win, there will be no Ukraine and there will be no Ukrainians.

‘That’s why it’s so important for us to bring this idea and philosophy of the Ukrainian fight.’

The team has pledged to make the Invictus spirit – the name is Latin for ‘unconquered’ – part of the national fabric if Ukraine survives the invasion.

‘We have promised one another that after our victory we will make a special integration of our veterans to the Invictus family,’ Ms Draganchuk said.

‘I dream of making this as popular as possible and to involve more than a million veterans we will receive after the war in this fantastic and quite incredible sporting competition.

‘It really is the best way for their rehabilitation and integration back into social life. I hope this will be the future for the Invictus Family of Ukraine after our victory.’

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