The first member of the royal family to visit Ukraine after Russia attacked the country in February 2022 doesn't want people to call her "brave" or "courageous."
On Sunday, May 26, Duchess Sophie wrote an article for The Sunday Times titled Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh: Diary of my secret trip to Ukraine. In it, the royal details not only her time in the war-torn country but the reception she received upon her return.
"Since returning to the UK, many people have said how brave or courageous I was for going. I am neither," she wrote. "The brave people are those who have endured extreme violence and survived. The courageous are those who have reported the crimes committed against them."
Duchess Sophie went on to write that she is "glad to have made the journey," despite the horrible atrocities, pain, sadness and loss of life she was exposed to.
"Inevitably it was sad and emotional, and the painful stories and images, as with all my visits to places of conflict, will live with me," she explained.
According to the Duchess' own account, very few people knew she was making the secret trip to Ukraine among the country's ongoing war against Russia.
"With very few people knowing of my visit, I travelled with only my private secretary, a Foreign Office adviser, and a security team," she wrote. "We reached Kyiv after a long day of travel through Warsaw, and, with no flights, took the well-travelled rail route to the capital that, amazingly, the Ukrainians have kept going during the war."
The royal's trip included visits to Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin, as well as an education and development center for Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland.
Duchess Sophie's trip to Ukraine is not the first time she has traveled to a conflict zone—as she noted in the article, she has also been to South Sudan, Kosovo, Iraq, Colombia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
All of her trips—including her recent visit to Ukraine—are made with what she said is the "hope that I can draw attention to and encourage greater support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence."
During her visit to Ukraine, Duchess Sophie met with three survivors of sexual violence.
"History is littered with reports of women falling prey to advancing and occupying armies, and it still exists in modern warfare," Duchess Sophie wrote. "Historically, this has often been viewed as a casualty or symptom of war, rather than a deliberate tactic to overpower. It is only more recently that increased recognition has been given to these heinous crimes, and society has come to understand that it is used to demean, destroy and control, with the aftermath long felt through stigma, devastating physical and mental health repercussions and children born of rape. It is a weapon requiring no training, no investment, and it is deployed globally."
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there have been an estimated 169 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in the region, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
