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. 

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’s surprise visit to war-torn Ukraine

Prince Harry insiders insist Duke was safe in Ukraine because he had ‘robust security unlike in UK’

William, 42, took part in a trench warfare training exercise in what has been described as ‘Putin’s backyard’, as allied troops fired on an enemy position.

Donning a protective helmet and glasses, the Prince of Wales travelled in a Challenger 2 tank to be briefed about the exercise, before switching to a Warrior infantry fighting vehicle to travel out to the field exercise.

His vehicle was the last of three to arrive at the scene where soldiers from the Merican battlegroup were undertaking an exercise to spot and break into an enemy trench before capturing ‘high-value target’ enemy troops.

As the first two Warrior vehicles arrived after spotting the trench, they opened fire on the enemy base with machine guns.

The soldiers were already firing machine guns from the vehicles into the trench as William arrived, travelling in the commander’s turret of the third and final warrior vehicle to give him an ‘eagle-eye view’ of the exercise as he arrived. 

Following the demonstration, William was given the chance to drive an Archer, a mobile artillery vehicle and one of the ‘next generation’ wheeled artillery systems used by the British army to serve fast-moving ground forces.

A royal aide said the prince was delighted to be ‘getting his hands dirty’, adding the visit was ‘about the Prince of Wales showing his support to Estonia as it manages its proximity to Russia while hosting NATO troops and welcoming Ukrainian refuges’.

Prince William rides in British tank during visit to Nato base just 90 miles from Putin’s Russia

His Estonia visit has now been subsequently followed by his younger brother’s trip actually within Ukraine, as part of his efforts as founder of the Invictus Games for wounded veterans.

Harry left the UK secretly, and without informing Buckingham Palace, early last Thursday and was understood to have landed at an unnamed airport in Poland.

He was given a police escort to and from the Polish border and former Ukrainian military personnel accompanied him to the Superhumans rehabilitation centre in Lviv where he met adults and children who have been injured since war broke out in 2022.

Harry looked visibly moved as he met people who had been maimed by Russian attacks on Ukraine.

At least 33 people are believed to have lost their lives in bombings in the city since 2022, with the most recent attack coming last November.

In one attack late last year seven people were killed, including three children, while 50 were injured when Russia attacked with drones and hypersonic missiles.

Harry is now the most senior royal to visit Ukraine but is not believed to have informed Buckingham Palace in advance of his trip.

His journey to Ukraine came after two days in London to argue in the High Court that he, Meghan Markle and their two children were not safe to come to Britain.

Harry and William’s royal bodyguard would be ‘horrified at rift’, says ex-colleague after his death

His barrister claimed the prince, who is believed to have earned $120million from Netflix and Spotify and lives in a $15million Montecito mansion, must have his full taxpayer-funded bodyguards restored when in the UK because his ‘life is at stake’.

His lawyers said, ‘Al Qaeda called for the duke to be murdered’ – saying ‘his assassination would please the Muslim community‘.

The prince claimed he was ‘singled out’ for ‘inferior treatment’ when the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) stripped him of his top-level security in February 2020 after he moved out of the UK.

But Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Home Office, said it had discretion to strip his guaranteed full time police security without consulting the Risk Management Board quango.

The Duke of Sussex last Thursday visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates injured military personnel and civilians.

Photos shared in the evening showed the royal with a smile ear-to-ear, posing with dozens of wounded soldiers.

One image showed the Duke with a solemn expression as he chatted to a visibly injured youngster.

The visit to the area in western Ukraine, that has frequently been targeted with Russian missiles, was not announced until after Harry was out of the country.

Sporty Wills hangs with NATO unit playing pool and table football

King Charles throws protective arm around Zelensky as leaders scramble to help Ukrainian president

Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, has long made helping injured soldiers one of his most prominent causes – founding the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans the chance to compete in sports events similar to the Paralympics.

The prince was joined in Ukraine by a contingent from the Invictus Games Foundation, including four veterans who have been through similar rehabilitation experiences.

His aunt Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, became the first British royal to travel to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion when she made an unannounced visit to Kyiv last year.

King Charles warmly greeted the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support at his estate on the North Sea coast just two days after the politician’s dressing down by US President Donald Trump at the White House in February.

The meeting in Norfolk, which came at Mr Zelensky’s request, was long planned but came just two days after his showdown with Mr Trump.

KINDLY CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP COMMUNITY FOR FREE, GET THE LATEST ON THE GO HERE