The visit of the first members of the royal family to Ukraine after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022/2 does not want people to call her "brave" or "courageous."

On Sunday 5/26, Duchess Sophie wrote an article for the Sunday Times titled Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh: The Diary of my secret trip to Ukraine. In it, the royal family details not only her time in the war-torn country, but also the reception she received when she returned.

"Since returning to the UK, many people have said how brave or brave I was to go. I'm not either," she wrote. "Brave people are those who have endured and survived extreme violence. Courageous are those who reported crimes committed against them.

Duchess Sophie wrote that despite the horrific atrocities, pain, grief and loss of life she was exposed to, she was "glad to have made the journey."

"Inevitably it was sad and emotional, and painful stories and images would live with me, like every visit to the place of conflict," she explained.

According to the Duchess's own description, few people knew that she was making a secret trip to Ukraine amid the country's ongoing war against Russia.

"Few people knew of my visit, but I traveled alone with my secretary, foreign Affairs adviser and security team," she wrote. "We arrived in Kiev after a long day's trip through Warsaw and without a flight, surprisingly, took a well-traveled railway route to the capital, which the Ukrainians have continued during the war.

The Royal trip included visits to the Educational Development Center for Ukrainian refugees in Kiev, Buta, Irpin, and Warsaw, Poland.

Duchess Sophie's trip to Ukraine is not the first time she has traveled to conflict zones — as she mentioned in the article, she has also been to South Sudan, Kosovo, Iraq, Colombia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

All trips, including her recent visit to Ukraine, are made with what she said "I hope I can draw attention and encourage greater support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence."

While visiting Ukraine, Duchess Sophie met with 3 survivors of sexual violence.

"History is littered with reports that women have fallen prey to advancing and occupying troops, and it still exists in modern warfare," writes Duchess Sophie. "Historically, this has often been seen as a casualty or a symptom of war, rather than a deliberate tactic to overwhelm." More recently, awareness of these heinous crimes has grown, and society is spreading globally, with stigma, devastating physical and mental health effects, and children born of rape being weapons that do not require training or investment."Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, an estimated 169 cases of conflict-related sexual violence have occurred in the region, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.