Prince Harry hugs daughter of Ukrainian war hero who was captured and tortured by Russian forces for 12 weeks

Prince Harry hugged the daughter of the Ukrainian war hero who was captured and tortured by Russian forces for 12 weeks during the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, gave Anna-Sofia Puzanova, daughter of Yuliia Paievska, a warm hug at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany yesterday.

Volunteer paramedic Yuliia, who won bronze for Ukraine at the Invictus Games, was kidnapped by Russian soldiers in March 2022 while on her way to treat injured civilians after a bomb attack on a theater in Mariupol.

While she was detained, her then 19-year-old daughter Anna-Sofia competed in archery at the Invictus Games in her place and won a bronze medal.

The young woman, 20, also raised her mother’s situation with the Invictus Games board, leading to a call from Prince Harry following her mother’s release.

The 53-year-old, who was tortured by Russian troops for three months, says a phone call from Prince Harry after her release inspired her to ‘keep fighting for her country’.

Anna-Sofia said Harry was aware of the situation with her mother and the couple showed her ‘a lot of support’.

Yuliia previously described being interrogated and told lies that Ukraine had been wiped out during the invasion The Telegraph reported.

Ms Paievska, a member of the Ukrainian team for the Invictus Games, received a call from the Duke of Sussex a week after she was released by her captors. She said he spoke “strongly and sincerely” about the conflict in Ukraine.

“He just inspired me to keep fighting,” Ms. Paievska said. “He said he supports Ukraine and all of us.”

Despite the trauma of her captivity, Ms. Paievska says she is determined to continue helping Ukraine as the country defends itself against continued Russian aggression.

She initially retrained as a paramedic in 2014 to help when tensions arose in the eastern Donbas region and founded Tayra’s Angels, the volunteer ambulance corps.

In her home country, Ms. Paievska rose to fame after treating 500 Ukrainian soldiers in the Dombas and training 8,000 people in tactical medicine.

She and a colleague were riding an ambulance through a humanitarian corridor in Mariupol on March 16 when they were ambushed by Russian forces, who considered her a prime target.

Ms. Paievska soon found herself in solitary confinement with only half a glass of water a day and no treatment for her thyroid and asthma conditions. She was later transferred to a 10-by-20-foot women’s cell, where she said prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electricity.

She said: ‘I had absolutely no information about what was happening in the outside world. I didn’t even know if my family was alive or if my house had survived because the Russians were already in Kiev when we left.”

Ms Paievska added: ‘I am very grateful to Prince Harry because it was after the Invictus Games… that the Russians stopped interrogating and torturing me. I think spreading it to the whole world influenced their decision to trade me in a prisoner exchange.”

It comes after Meghan, 42, shared a sweet moment with Yuliia at her first Invictus Games event on Wednesday.

The Duchess was pictured at the hotel in Dusseldorf, walking alongside Yuliia (nicknamed ‘Taira’) as they attended a reception of friends and family on the second night of the week-long event.

The pair looked like old friends as Taira grabbed Meghan’s wrist with her hand and they both beamed as the Duke of Sussex walked alongside them.

Mother-of-one Taira tells her heartbreaking story in the fifth and final episode of Harry’s Netflix series, Heart of Invictus – and credits the tournament for helping to secure her release.

Ms Paievska started working on the Ukrainian frontline in 2014. She was later injured during an evacuation operation.

“Seven years on the front lines, I have titanium joints in my legs, my spine is suffering, and I’ve had these traumas for a long time,” she told the Netflix documentary, adding that test results showed she had had two heart attacks . . Her medical condition forced her to reconsider her role as a paramedic.

She said she first heard about the Invictus Games when she was in the hospital after one of her surgeries.

Appearing in the fifth episode of Heart of Invictus, which dropped on streaming giant Netflix last month, Taira recalled some of her horrific experiences at the hands of Russian forces and highlighted the importance of the Invictus Games in improving the lives of veterans.

She said: ‘It was a period when I was sure I would be killed or die by torture.

“About a month before I was released, they stopped beating me, and then the Invictus Games started.

‘The Invictus Games shared my story with the whole world. (Russian forces) realized they could no longer hold me captive.”

Taira’s daughter, Ana-Sofia, also speaks in the documentary about her mother’s capture and eventual return.

She recalled barely recognizing Taira when she was released by Russian forces, saying she looked “like a skinny boy.”

“I hear her voice and I realize this is my mother; Ana-Sofia recalled.

“We all stood in silence for a few minutes and hugged each other.”