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6 best pieces from Victoria Beckham’s new Gap range, from £25 to £250

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6 best pieces from Victoria Beckham’s new Gap range, from £25 to £250



The long-awaited collaboration between Gap and Victoria Beckham has officially landed, marking a significant moment in the high street’s ongoing push towards more elevated and design-led fashion.

The 38-piece collection – priced from £25 to £250 – reimagines Gap’s most recognisable staples through Beckham’s ultra-tailored, minimalist lens.

It also signals the next phase of the retailer’s “luxification” strategy under chief executive Richard Dickson, who joined from Mattel in 2023 and has since steered the brand towards more premium collaborations.

Rooted in wardrobe essentials, the range spans outerwear, shirting and denim, with a more sustained focus on cut, proportion and detailing.

Many of the pieces echo Beckham’s own day-to-day looks – the kind regularly seen both off-duty and on her Paris Fashion Week runways – but at a fraction of the price. A denim jacket in her mainline label, for example, can retail for close to £600, while T-shirts typically start from around £95.

At its core, this collection is about refining the everyday, says Beckham.

“To me, Gap is an all-American icon – a brand that has always created timeless pieces for everybody’s wardrobe, with a sharp attention to detail.

“Bringing my design perspective to those everyday essentials has made this collaboration incredibly special,” she says.

The result is a line-up that feels familiar but distinctly chic. Classic Gap motifs – from the logo hoodie to denim jackets – are elevated through structure and silhouette, including subtle VB branding stitched in red.

The collection also taps into Gap’s archive, with references to the brand’s defining concepts from the late Eighties and early Nineties, reworked through Beckham’s eye.

Clean neutrals dominate, as khaki, camel and blue make up the tightly edited palette, which can slot seamlessly into an existing wardrobe.

So are these pieces a step up from Gap’s core offering? Here are the standout pieces to get your hands on.

Cargo skirt (£85)

An understated standout of the collection is the khaki utility skirt, which taps into Beckham’s signature of structure and wearability.

While it also comes in beige, the muted olive version, wrap-front design and asymmetric closure give it a cool and utilitarian edge that still feels chic.

It works well with a plain white T-shirt and kitten heels for an off-duty model look, while also doubling as a smart workwear staple.

The utility jumpsuit (£95)

A highlight of the collection is the structured utility jumpsuit, which upholds Beckham’s longstanding reputation for flattering lines.

With sculpted seams and a more tailored fit, it elevates a classic wardrobe staple into something more interesting and contemporary. It’s an easy all-in-one piece that can be styled up with heels or worn casually with trainers and a tote.

Barrel-leg arch jeans (£85)

Perhaps best known for her cult ‘Alina’ jeans, Beckham has brought her expertise to the barrel-leg arch style.

Designed with a high-rise waistband and subtle stretch, the jeans hold their shape while enhancing the silhouette.

The higher back pockets also give a lifted effect, making them flattering from all angles, offering a good alternative to the ubiquitous wide-leg trend.

Oversized parka (£130)

A practical yet chic outerwear option is the olive-toned parka.

Featuring a cinched waist, oversized fit and exaggerated collar, it’s emblematic of Beckham’s love of strong lines in outerwear.

The piece layers easily over hoodies or lightweight knits, making it one of the most versatile items in the collection.

Logo hoodie (£95)

A reworked take on a Nineties staple, the navy hoodie might be the cult item from the collection.

Complete with a kangaroo pocket and drawstring hood, it is updated with co-branded detailing, combining Gap’s iconic arch logo with Victoria Beckham branding.

Already spotted on Beckham and her son Cruz on social media, it is expected to be one of the collection’s fastest-selling pieces.

Capri pants (£70)

The return of capri pants taps into the ongoing revival of early Noughties fashion, a silhouette once popularised in Gap campaigns of the era.

Cropped just below the knee, the streamlined shape is the perfect transitional item for your spring wardrobe. Styled as a co-ord with a matching jacket in the campaign, it can also be worn simply with a crisp white T-shirt and ballet flats.

The Gap × Victoria Beckham collection is available now at Gap.co.uk and in selected London stores, including Westfield White City and Covent Garden.



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A massive, unstable ice block stalls Everest climbers at base camp

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A massive, unstable ice block stalls Everest climbers at base camp


KATHMANDU, Nepal — A massive ice block on the route just above the Mount Everest base camp has forced hundreds of climbers and their local guides to delay their attempt to scale the world’s highest peak, officials said Friday.

The serac between base camp and Camp One is unstable and is risky for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal’s Department of Mountaineering.

Officials are working with climbers and expedition organizers to assess the situation as hundreds of climbers and their guides wait at base camp unable to move up the mountain.

According to the department, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to attempt to reach the Everest summit during the spring climbing season, which ends at the end of May.

The “Icefall Doctors,” the elite guides who lay the yearly climbing route by setting ropes and securing aluminum ladders over crevasses usually finish the task by mid-April.

The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which would deploy the team to lay the route, plans to assess the serac by aerial survey. The risk of avalanche is high and they are waiting for the serac to melt down on its own to a safe level, committee Chairman Lama Kazi Sherpa said.

The serac is part of the Khumbu Icefall, a constantly shifting glacier with deep crevasses and huge overhanging ice that can be as big as 10-story buildings. It is considered one of the most difficult and trickiest sections of the climb to the peak.

In 2014, a chunk of the glacier sheared away from the mountain, setting off an avalanche of ice that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they carried clients’ equipment up the mountain. It was one of the deadliest disasters in Everest climbing history.

Hundreds of foreign climbers and about the same number of Nepalese guides and helpers are expected to attempt to scale the mountain next month when there are a few brief windows of favorable weather.

Thousands of people have climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high peak since it was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.



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China’s DeepSeek rolls out a long-anticipated update of its AI model

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China’s DeepSeek rolls out a long-anticipated update of its AI model


HONG KONG — DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup that shook world markets last year, launched preview versions of its latest major update Friday as the AI rivalry between China and the U.S. heats up.

DeepSeek’s V4 has been keenly anticipated by users keen to test how it compares to U.S. competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. Anthropic and OpenAI have accused DeepSeek of unfairly building its technology off their own.

Some industry analysts had expected the new model to arrive more than a month earlier at the start of the Lunar New Year.

DeepSeek says the new V4 open-source models, which include “pro” and “flash” versions, have big improvements in knowledge, reasoning and in their “agentic” capabilities – the ability to perform complex tasks and workflows autonomously.

V4 is a successor to V3, an AI model that DeepSeek released in late 2024.

But it was DeepSeek’s specialized “reasoning” AI model, called R1, that took markets by surprise with its release in January 2025. DeepSeek claimed it was more cost-effective than OpenAI’s similar model and it became a symbol of how China was catching up with the U.S. in technological advancements.

DeepSeek said the “V4 Pro Max” version has “superior performance” in terms of standard reasoning benchmarks relative to OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 model and Google’s Gemini 3.0-Pro. It falls “marginally” short of GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro, it said.

In terms of “agentic” capabilities, the Chinese company said the V4 “pro” version could outperform Claude’s Sonnet 4.5 and approaches the level of Claude’s Opus 4.5 model based on its own evaluation.

The “flash” version of V4 performs on a par with the “pro” version on simple agent tasks and has reasoning capabilities closely approaching it, DeepSeek said.

“Based on the benchmark results, it does appear DeepSeek V4 is going to be very competitive against its U.S. rivals,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia.

Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, said DeepSeek’s V4 rollout is as a “pivotal milestone for China’s AI industry”, especially as global competition intensifies in the pursuit of self-reliance in critical technologies.

DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use web and mobile chatbot. Unlike the top models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, it describes its technology as “open source” in the way that it enables developers access to modify and build on its core technology.

Both the V4’s “pro” and “flash” versions have a 1 million token context window, a parameter of how much information an AI model can process and recall, and run on a more efficient basis, the startup said. That is a significant improvement from before, since the V3 supported a 128,000 token context window.

A report from Microsoft in January showed use of DeepSeek has been gaining ground in many developing nations.

However, some analysts remain skeptical. Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said while V4 is a “competent” follow-up, it’s not as big a breakthrough as the rollout of R1.

“Domestic competition has intensified significantly since R1’s release,” Su said. “Against U.S. models, DeepSeek’s own evaluation suggests its capabilities largely match on most fronts, but independent evaluations are needed before final conclusions can be drawn.”

In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of “industrial-scale campaigns” to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models.” It said they did that using a technique called distillation that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.” OpenAI made similar allegations in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

This week, Michael Kratsios, chief science and technology adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, also accused foreign tech companies “principally based in China” of distilling leading U.S. AI systems and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

China’s embassy in Washington hit back at the allegations, describing them as “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

___

O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.



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Assisted dying bill to run out of time as Lords hold final debate

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Assisted dying bill to run out of time as Lords hold final debate



The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was supported by MPs but has not cleared its stages in the Lords.



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5 things teens wish parents would stop doing

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5 things teens wish parents would stop doing



Perhaps the deepest frustration for many teens is being treated as if they are still little children in every situation that matters. Parents may still see the child they once held, fed and protected, but teenagers are in a different phase now. They are forming opinions, testing boundaries and learning how to carry responsibility. When parents refuse to adjust, every conversation becomes a power struggle.

Teens often want one simple thing: to be treated with age-appropriate respect. That does not mean letting them do whatever they want. It means involving them in conversations, listening before deciding, and recognizing that they are not miniature versions of their parents. The more teenagers are allowed to practice independence in safe ways, the more likely they are to build the judgment adults hope they will one day have.

At the heart of all of this is a basic truth many families struggle to say out loud: teenagers do not need parents who become their best friends overnight, and they do not need parents who control every inch of their lives. They need adults who can stay steady, listen well and make room for growth without taking every change personally. For teens, that may be the difference between feeling managed and feeling loved.



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Trump’s May 1 deadline: Can he continue war on Iran after that?

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Trump’s May 1 deadline: Can he continue war on Iran after that?


When Donald Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire with Iran on Wednesday, the US President did not provide a deadline for the resumption of talks, simply saying the US would continue its near-one-week blockade on Tehran and wait for Iran’s “proposal” for further talks.

But he has another deadline to worry about – one coming up at home in the US Congress.

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Trump has until May 1 to obtain congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution (sometimes referred to as the War Powers Act). It states that he must limit deployments in any ongoing conflict after 60 days – unless he is granted specific authorisation to continue.

To grant this, both the House of Representatives and the Senate must pass a joint resolution  – with a simple majority in each – within that 60-day limit. That’s not happened so far.

However, the act has previously been bypassed by Trump’s predecessors, who used other sources of authority as a basis for conducting military operations.

What is the War Powers Act?

The 1973 federal law was passed to restrict a US president’s authority to involve the country in armed conflict overseas.

Under the resolution, the president must inform Congress within 48 hours of initiating military action and may sustain deployments for only 60 days, unless a single 30-day extension is granted by Congress, or it passes authorisation for a longer commitment.

Maryam Jamshidi, an associate professor of law at Colorado Law School, said that to extend the 60-day window by 30 days, the president must certify, in writing, to Congress that the continuing use of armed force is a result of “unavoidable military necessity”.

“Beyond this 90 [day] window, the president is required to terminate the deployment of US armed forces if Congress has not declared war or otherwise authorised continuing military action.”

However, she added: “There is no clear legal avenue for Congress to successfully force the president to abide by this termination requirement and, indeed, past presidents have refused to do so, claiming that this part of the War Powers Act is unconstitutional”.

Is Trump likely to get authorisation for the war from Congress?

As things currently stand, it is far from certain that Congress will authorise continued military action against Iran because of deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans in the chamber.

On April 15, a fourth bipartisan bid in the US Senate to curb Trump’s authority to conduct military operations using the War Powers Resolution was defeated by 52-47, with members voting overwhelmingly along party lines.

“We should not fail to note how extraordinary it is that our Senate Republican leadership has declined to do any oversight of a war that is costing billions of dollars every week,” Democrat Senator Chris Murphy said.

Congressional Republicans have largely declined to interfere with the president during the 60 days allotted by the War Powers Resolution, but many have insisted that approval from Congress will be required after that.

Republican Senator John Curtis recently wrote: “I support the president’s actions taken in defense of American lives and interests. However, I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval. I take this position for two reasons – one is historical, and one is constitutional.”

“By law, we’ve got to either approve continued operations or stop,” Republican Congressman Don Bacon told US media. “If it’s not approved, by law, they have to stop their operations.”

Some Republicans, who have so far steadfastly supported Trump’s actions in Iran, are also showing unease over the prospect of a protracted war, limiting the potential for overall congressional approval. While they have blocked efforts to curb the president’s powers to order military action in Iran so far, some have said they may vote differently if the war threatens to go on beyond 60 days.

Have hostilities really ceased for now?

While the US administration and its Iranian adversaries declared a two-week ceasefire on April 8, and then a unilateral extension was announced by Trump on Tuesday this week, military pressure has continued in parallel, mostly at sea.

On Monday, US forces fired on and captured the Iranian-flagged container ship Touska in the northern Arabian Sea near the Strait of Hormuz as it sailed towards the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Trump said the ship had ignored US orders to alter its planned transit through the strait. The operation followed Washington’s imposition of a naval blockade on all Iranian ports on April 13.

Iran responded two days later by capturing two foreign commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and moving them to the Iranian coast. The Reuters news agency said on Wednesday that the US military intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in ‌Asian waters, reportedly redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Will Trump continue this war beyond the May 1 deadline?

Salar Mohendesi, a professor of History at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, US, said the war has been “terrible” for Trump, with polls consistently showing the US public is opposed to it, but that he is likely to continue with it in some shape or form.

“His entire brand is based on winning. He told the American public that he could extract a better deal from Iran, he promised that he would not get involved in a war, and his beleaguered party is about to head into midterm elections in the midst of a historically unpopular war,” Mohendesi told Al Jazeera.

“Trump can still walk away and staunch the bleeding, so to speak, but that would mean accepting defeat. He is a gambler, so it’s very possible that he will continue to escalate in the hopes of eking out some sort of victory down the line”.

The question experts are asking: in what form will he continue the war, and how will he try to circumvent the US Congress if necessary?

Are there ways Trump can get around approval from Congress?

The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) provides another potential legal basis for continued operations as it grants the president power to use force for specific goals.

It was first passed in 2001 after the September 11 attacks to enable the US to conduct its “war on terror”, and was passed again in 2002 to remove Saddam Hussein and authorise the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These authorisations have been used by successive administrations to justify a wide range of military actions.

In Trump’s first term, he used the 2002 AUMF to order the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

A 2015 congressional report on the AUMF found that former President Barack Obama had relied on the 2001 AUMF not only to continue US military operations in Afghanistan, but also “for beginning a new campaign against ISIS/ISIL, with the possibility of expansion to other countries if the Islamic State or Al Qaeda groups or associates effectively expand their reach and pose a threat to US national security and interests”.

The Obama administration maintained that its military operations against ISIL fell under the auspices of the authorisation when US forces were first deployed to Syria in 2014.

How else have US presidents got around Congress?

In practice, presidents since 1973 have frequently conducted military operations without explicit congressional approval before the AUMF came into effect at the start of the century, using a variety of legal justifications and claims to authority.

Former US President Bill Clinton authorised several military operations in the 1990s during his eight-year presidency, including in Iraq and Somalia.

In March 1999, Clinton deployed US forces against the former Yugoslavia over the Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians, without obtaining congressional approval.

Former US Representative Tom Campbell and 17 others unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against the administration, arguing that Clinton could not continue the war unless he was granted authorisation by Congress under the War Powers Act. The military campaign in Yugoslavia lasted 79 days.

During the US military campaign in Libya between March and June 2011, the Obama administration argued that the mission did not meet the legal definition of “hostilities” under the War Powers Resolution.

As a result, the administration maintained that it was not required to obtain explicit authorisation from Congress to continue the Libya campaign as it did not feature “active exchanges of fire with hostile forces“.



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Rosenberg: Kremlin’s tightening grip on internet fuels public discontent

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Rosenberg: Kremlin’s tightening grip on internet fuels public discontent



Throughout Russia, internet usage has become seriously restricted. Citizens are drawing comparison to Soviet censorship and today’s digital blackouts.



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Former Giants co-owner Steve Tisch seen in team’s draft room

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Former Giants co-owner Steve Tisch seen in team’s draft room


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Cameras showed former New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch in the team’s draft room Thursday night during the first round.

At one point, Tisch was seen standing near Giants head coach John Harbaugh. Despite no longer holding a majority stake in the NFL franchise, Tisch remains the Giants’ chairman of the board.

ESPN obtained an NFL memo last month detailing plans by Steve Tisch and his siblings to transfer their stake in the Giants to trusts for their children.

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New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch warms up before the NFL game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 28, 2018. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)

“Prior transfers to these Trusts were completed pursuant to 2023 and 2024 Finance Committee approvals,” the memo stated. “The Sellers now propose to transfer their entire remaining interests, totaling 23.1% of the Club, to the Trusts. … Following the transactions, the Sellers will no longer own any interest in the Club.”

GIANTS CO-OWNER STEVE TISCH, SIBLINGS LOOK TO TRANSFER EQUITY STAKE TO CHILDREN’S TRUSTS, NFL MEMO SHOWS

It was not clear if the transfer requests were in any way related to Tisch’s name appearing in the Epstein files released by the U.S. Justice Department in January. Tisch’s name came up more than 400 times in the files. Tisch at the time said he knew Epstein but denied visiting Epstein’s island.

As for draft night, the Giants made what some viewed as an unconventional pick at No. 10, selecting offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa.

Francis Mauigoa celebrating after being selected by the New York Giants at the NFL Draft.

Francis Mauigoa of Miami celebrates after being selected as the tenth overall pick by the New York Giants during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pa., on April 23, 2026. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

Before that, the Giants added another piece to their pass rush, selecting hybrid edge/off-ball linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 5.

Reese earned All-American honors at Ohio State and finished his first season as a full-time starter with 6.5 sacks.

Arvell Reese celebrating after being selected by the New York Giants at the NFL Draft.

Arvell Reese of Ohio State celebrates after being selected as the fifth overall pick by the New York Giants during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pa., on April 23, 2026. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

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Reese is set to join a pass rush that includes Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and, likely, Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.





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EU approves a $106 billion loan package to help Ukraine after Hungary lifts its veto

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EU approves a 6 billion loan package to help Ukraine after Hungary lifts its veto


BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan package to help Ukraine meet its economic and military needs for two years after oil began flowing through a key pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia, ending months of political deadlock.

The EU also approved a new raft of sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine. The measures were prepared early this year and had been set to be announced in February to mark the fourth anniversary of the conflict, but Hungary and Slovakia opposed the move.

Hungary and Slovakia have been locked in a feud with Ukraine since Russian oil deliveries to the two EU countries were halted in January after a pipeline was damaged. Ukrainian officials blamed the damage on Russian drone attacks. Both countries confirmed Thursday that deliveries have resumed.

Ukraine desperately needs the loan package to prop up its war-ravaged economy and help keep Russian forces at bay. Hungary angered its EU partners by reneging on a December deal to provide the funds. The loans are expected to be available in coming weeks and months.

“Promised, delivered, implemented,” European Council President António Costa posted on social media. A few hours later, as he arrived to chair a summit of EU leaders in Cyprus, Costa told reporters that the priority now must be to advance Ukraine’s quest to join the bloc.

Standing alongside him, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his European partners for their support. “We will work to make sure the funds are delivered as soon as possible,” he said. “This will strengthen, of course first of all our army, Ukrainian forces, and allow us to boost production.”

The political greenlight for the loan package came after Russian oil began flowing to Hungary and Slovakia again through the Druzhba pipeline that crosses Ukraine. Populist Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico welcomed that development as “good news.”

“Let’s hope a serious relation between Ukraine and the European Union has been established,” Fico said.

Hungarian energy group MOL said it had “received crude oil at the Fényeslitke and Budkovce pumping stations earlier Thursday. Crude oil deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline system have thus resumed to Hungary and Slovakia after a hiatus of nearly three months.”

Ukraine and most of its European backers oppose imports of Russian oil which have helped to fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year. But unlike the rest of the European Union, Hungary and Slovakia still depend on Russia for their energy needs.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was recently defeated in an election, had accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying repairs — an allegation that Zelenskyy denied.

Fico said Thursday he still didn’t believe the pipeline was damaged at all and alleged that the pipeline and oil “were used in the current geopolitical battle.”

The row has raised yet more troubling questions about decision-making in the EU, which can often be held hostage to national interests when unanimous votes are required. Several top officials have in recent months called for more majority voting.

The 27-nation bloc had originally intended to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for the loan. But that option was blocked by Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen assets are held.

In December, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia agreed not to stop their EU partners from borrowing the money on international markets as long as the three countries did not have to take part in the scheme.

But Orbán, who has repeatedly blocked EU aid to Ukraine, angered the other 24 countries by later reneging on that deal over the pipeline dispute and as campaigning heated up ahead of the April 12 election that he lost in a landslide.

The EU has also been trying since February to push through a new raft of sanctions against Russia to undermine its war effort, but Hungary and Slovakia were also blocking those measures over the oil feud.

More than 40 ships believed to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet illicitly transporting oil were targeted.

Oil revenue is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse.

A number of banks were targeted, and a ban was imposed on Europeans using Russian crypto currency.

Asset freezes were slapped on around 60 more “entities” — often companies, government agencies, banks or other organizations — adding to a growing list of more than 2,600 Russian officials and entities already under sanctions, including Putin, his political associates, oligarchs, and dozens of lawmakers.

___

Spike reported from Budapest. Janicek reported from Prague.



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Prince Harry makes direct plea to Putin to ‘stop this war’ during visit to Ukraine

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Prince Harry makes direct plea to Putin to ‘stop this war’ during visit to Ukraine


The Duke of Sussex has directly urged Vladimir Putin to “stop this war” in a surprise visit to Kyiv, as he praised Ukraine for “still standing, still fighting”.

Prince Harry, 41, was addressing world leaders and high-ranking military officials at the Kyiv Security Forum as part of a surprise visit and appealed to the Russian leader to “choose a different course”.

He said: “President Putin, no nation benefits from the continued loss of life we are witnessing.

“There is still a moment – now – to stop this war, to prevent further suffering for Ukrainians and Russians alike, and to choose a different course.”

The visit to Ukraine was made to “remind people back home and around the world” of the country’s war with Russia.

The Duke of Sussex warned “the world must not grow used” to, or “numb” to, the conflict in Ukraine.

“I am not here as a politician,” he said. “I am here as a soldier who understands service, as a humanitarian who has seen the human cost of conflict, and as a friend of Ukraine who believes the world must not grow used to this war or numb to its consequences.”

Prince Harry addressed the Kyiv Security Forum on his visit to Ukraine (Reuters)

He condemned the “systematic war crimes”, and the “chilling” treatment of Ukraine’s children.

“Across occupied territories, there is mounting, documented evidence of systematic war crimes: deliberate attacks on civilians, mass killings, torture, sexual violence, and the forced deportation of entire populations,” Harry said.

“Under international law, the forcible transfer of children from one national group to another is not just a war crime – it can constitute an act of genocide when carried out with intent to destroy a people’s identity.

“This is not collateral damage. This is not the chaos of war spilling over.

“This is organised, systematic, intentional, and designed to endure long after the fighting stops.”

He also made reference to the “American leadership” but did not mention Donald Trump by name, saying it was a “moment for America to show that it can honour its international treaty obligations”.

The Duke of Sussex warned the world must not become ‘numb’ to the war in Ukraine
The Duke of Sussex warned the world must not become ‘numb’ to the war in Ukraine (Reuters)

Harry said: “The United States has a singular role in this story. Not only because of its power, but because when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons, America was part of the assurance that Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders would be respected.

“This is a moment for American leadership – a moment for America to show that it can honour its international treaty obligations – not out of charity, but out of its enduring role in global security and strategic stability.”

Harry was filmed by ITV News arriving at Kyiv railway station on Thursday morning, stepping off an overnight train from Poland and greeting people on the platform.

“It’s good to be back in Ukraine,” he said, according to the broadcaster.

Prince Harry said he is speaking as a ‘soldier who understands service’
Prince Harry said he is speaking as a ‘soldier who understands service’ (AFP/Getty)

Harry described Ukraine as “a country bravely and successfully defending Europe’s eastern flank” and said: “It matters that we don’t lose sight of the significance of that.”

He said about Ukraine: “You have adapted, you have endured. And you have held the line.

“Few believed that would be possible. And yet here you are – still standing, still fighting, still leading.”

He added: “What is happening here is not simply a war about territory.

“It is a war about values, about sovereignty, about whether the principles that underpin our shared democracy still hold meaning.”

The duke said he wanted “to remind people back home and around the world what Ukraine is up against and to support the people and partners doing extraordinary work every hour of every day in incredibly tough conditions”.

The unannounced visit comes days after the duke finished a tour of Australia with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.



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