A timeline of recent British royal events

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III was hospitalized briefly for side effects from his cancer treatment and canceled public appointments on Friday, a small setback in his more than yearlong battle with an undisclosed type of the disease.

The 76-year-old king smiled and waved to supporters from the backseat of a chauffeur-driven Audi as he left his residence at Clarence House the day after he was briefly kept at a private hospital in London for observation.

The royal family has weathered a difficult period since January 2024 when both Charles and his daughter-in-law, Kate, the Princess of Wales, were hospitalized for different medical procedures and doctors discovered they both had cancer. While Kate announced in September that she had completed chemotherapy, the king continues to receive treatment.

Charles is due to resume official duties soon and plans a state visit to Italy next month.

Here’s a timeline of recent events in the royal family:

Charles becomes king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles makes first foreign visit as monarch to Germany.

The new monarch is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Charles travels to France for a state visit, making a stop at the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral.

Charles makes a state visit to Kenya, expressing sorrow and regret for past violence committed against Kenyans as they sought independence.

Charles attends a Christmas service at Sandringham, the royal estate in eastern England, alongside Prince William, Kate, their children and other members of the royal family. It will be Kate’s last public appearance for six months.

Kate, 42, is admitted to the London Clinic and undergoes abdominal surgery. The news isn’t announced until the next day.

Kensington Palace reveals that Kate is recovering from a planned operation. Officials say her condition isn’t cancer-related, but didn't specify what surgery it was, only saying it was successful. They say she will remain in the private hospital for 10-14 days and be away from public view until after Easter. Buckingham Palace announces on the same day that Charles will be treated for a benign enlarged prostate.

Charles is admitted to a London hospital for a three-day stay for his prostate treatment.

Kate and Charles are both discharged from the London Clinic. Charles is photographed leaving the hospital with Camilla and waving at well-wishers. Kate isn't pictured leaving the hospital.

Buckingham Palace announces that Charles has cancer and will receive treatment. Officials don't say what form of cancer the king has.

Prince Harry arrives in the U.K. from California to visit his father. He departs the next day.

Charles cheerfully waves to well-wishers after leaving church services near Sandringham, his first public outing since his cancer diagnosis.

Kensington Palace releases a photo of Kate surrounded by her children to mark Mother’s Day in Britain. The photo, the first official one since she underwent surgery, was retracted hours later by The Associated Press and other news agencies over concerns it had been digitally manipulated.

Amid speculation about her health sparked by the edited family photo, Kate issues an apology on social media for the “confusion” caused. She says that she “occasionally experiments with editing” like many amateur photographers.

The Sun newspaper publishes a video reportedly showing a smiling and relaxed Kate shopping with William at a farm shop near their Windsor home.

In a video address, Kate announces that she's undergoing treatment for cancer, including chemotherapy. She says she is getting stronger every day, but needs to focus on her recovery.

Buckingham Palace announces that Charles will return to public-facing duties.

Charles attends commemorations in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Kate issues an update on her health, saying that she has “good days and bad days” and is “blown away” by the public’s support. She says that she will attend ceremonies the next day to mark the monarch’s official birthday.

Kate attends the king's official birthday ceremonies, also known as Trooping the Color, along with William, their three children and other members of the royal family. Crowds cheer when the royals emerge onto a Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a military flyby at the end of the event.

Kate presents tennis player Carlos Alcaraz with his trophy at Wimbledon in her second public appearance since announcing her diagnosis.

Kate releases a video message, saying she has finished chemotherapy and reflecting on her "complex, scary and unpredictable" cancer journey. She says she will undertake "a few more public engagements" in the coming months as she recovers.

Charles and Queen Camilla complete a physically taxing trip to Australia and Samoa.

Charles was briefly hospitalized for observation after experiencing “temporary side effects’’ related to a scheduled cancer treatment. He waves to well-wishers in central London the following day. Charles cancels planned engagements on the advice of his doctors.

FILE - Britain's King Charles III holds up flowers he was given as he leaves after a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, gestures during a reception with the Irish Guards, at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Eddie Mulholland/Pool photo via AP)

FILE - Britain's King Charles III waves as he arrives for a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, poses for a photo with the Irish Guards, at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Eddie Mulholland/Pool photo via AP)

FILE - Britain's King Charles III smiles during his visit to the Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre in Forsinard, Highland, Scotland, July 31, 2024. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, poses for a photo with members of the Irish Guards at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Flowers are seen in front of Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025, after the Palace said King Charles III was hospitalized for observation on Thursday, experiencing "temporary side effects,'' related to a scheduled cancer treatment. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's King Charles III is driven by car from Clarence House, his London home, along The Mall towards Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

The Royal Standard flag is pictured flying from the Roof of Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025, after the Palace said King Charles III was hospitalized for observation on Thursday, experiencing "temporary side effects,'' related to a scheduled cancer treatment. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

When she heard her front door open almost two years ago, Kostiantyn Zinovkin’s mother thought her son had returned home because he forgot something. Instead, men in balaclavas burst into the apartment in Melitopol, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces.

They said Zinovkin was detained for a minor infraction and would be released soon. They used his key to enter, said his wife, Liusiena, and searched the flat so thoroughly that they tore it apart “into molecules.”

But Zinovkin wasn't released. Weeks after his May 2023 arrest, the Russians told his mother he was plotting a terrorist attack. He's now standing trial on charges his family calls absurd.

Zinovkin is one of thousands of civilians in Russian captivity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists their release, along with prisoners of war, will be an important step toward ending the 3-year-old war.

So far, it hasn't appeared high on the agenda in U.S. talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

“While politicians discuss natural resources, possible territorial concessions, geopolitical interests and even Zelenskyy’s suit in the Oval Office, they’re not talking about people,” said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

In January, the center and other Ukrainian and Russian rights groups launched “People First,” a campaign that says any peace settlement must prioritize the release of everyone they say are captives, including Russians jailed for protesting the war, as well as Ukrainian children who were illegally deported.

“You can’t achieve sustainable peace without taking into account the human dimension,” Matviichuk told The Associated Press.

It's unknown how many Ukrainian civilians are in custody, both in occupied regions and in Russia. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets in 2023 estimated over 20,000.

Matviichuk says her group received over 4,000 requests to help civilian detainees. She notes it's against international law to detain noncombatants in war.

Oleg Orlov, co-founder of the Russian rights group Memorial, says advocates know at least 1,672 Ukrainian civilians are in Moscow’s custody.

“There’s a larger number of them that we don’t know about,” added Orlov, whose organization won the Nobel alongside Matviichuk's group and is involved in People First.

Many are detained for months without charges and don't know why they're being held, Orlov said.

Russian soldiers detained Mykyta Shkriabin, then 19, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in March 2022. He left the basement where his family was sheltering from fighting to get supplies and never returned.

Shkriabin was detained even though he wasn’t charged with a crime, said his lawyer, Leonid Solovyov. In 2023, the authorities began referring to him as a prisoner of war, a status Solovyov seeks to contest since the student wasn’t a combatant.

Shkriabin's mother, Tetiana, told AP last month she still doesn’t know where her son is held. In three years, she's received two letters from him saying he's doing well and that she shouldn't worry.

She's hoping for “a prisoner exchange, a repatriation, or something,” Shkriabina said. Without hope, "how does one hang in there?”

Others face charges that their relatives say are fabricated.

After being seized in Melitopol, Zinovkin was jailed for over two years and charged with seven offenses, including plotting a terrorist attack, assembling weapons and high treason, his wife Liusiena Zinovkina told AP, describing the charges as “absurd.”

While vocally pro-Ukrainian and against Russia's occupation, her husband couldn’t plot to bomb anyone and had no weapons skills, she said.

Especially nonsensical is the treason charge, she said, because Russian law stipulates that only its citizens can be charged with that crime, and Zinovkin has never held Russian citizenship, unless it was forced upon him in jail. A conviction could bring life in prison.

Ukrainian civilian Serhii Tsyhipa, 63, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security prison after he disappeared in March 2022 while walking his dog in Nova Kakhovka in the partially occupied Kherson region, said his wife, Olena. The dog also vanished.

Tsyhipa, a journalist, was wearing a jacket with a large red cross sewn on it. Both he and his wife, Olena, had those jackets, she told AP, because they volunteered to distribute food and other essentials when Russian troops invaded.

Serhii Tsyhipa protested the occupation, and Olena believes that led to his arrest.

He was held for months in Crimea and finally charged with espionage in December 2022. Almost a year later, in October 2023, Tsyhipa was convicted and sentenced in a trial that lasted only three hearings.

He appealed, but his sentence was upheld. “But the Russian authorities must understand that we are fighting — that we are doing everything possible to bring him home,” she said.

Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said rights advocates know of 307 Ukrainian civilians convicted in Russia on criminal charges — usually espionage or treason, if the person held a Russian passport, but also terrorism and extremism.

He said that in Ukraine's occupied territories, Russians see activists, community leaders and journalists as "the greatest threat.”

Winning release for those already serving sentences would be an uphill battle, advocates say.

Relatives must piece together scraps of information about prison conditions.

Zinovkina said she has received letters from her husband who told her of problems with his sight, teeth and back. Former prisoners also told her of cramped, cold basement cells in a jail in Rostov, where he's being held.

She believes her husband was pressured to sign a confession. A man who met him in jail told her Kostiantyn “confessed to everything they wanted him to, so the worst is over” for him.

Orlov said Ukrainian POWs and civilians are known to be held in harsh conditions, where allegations of abuse and torture are common.

A recent report by the U.N. Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry on Ukraine said Russia “committed enforced disappearances and torture as crimes against humanity,” part of a "systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy.”

It said Russia “detained large numbers of civilians,” jailed them in occupied Ukraine or deported them to Russia, and “systematically used torture against certain categories of detainees to extract information, coerce, and intimidate.”

The Kremlin tested those methods during the two wars it waged in Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, well before invading Ukraine, said Orlov, who recently went to Ukraine to document Russia’s human rights violations and saw the pattern repeated from the North Caucasus conflicts.

“Essentially, a misanthropic system has been created, and everyone who falls into it ends up in hell,” added Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human rights advocate.

Russia's Defense Ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Security Service did not respond to requests for comment.

As the U.S. talks about a ceasefire, relatives continue to press for the captives' release.

Liusiena Zinovkina says she hasn't abandoned hope as her husband, now 35, stands trial but is tempering her expectations.

“I see that it’s not as simple as the American president thought. It’s not that easy to come to an agreement with Russia,” she said, reminding herself “to be patient. It will happen, but not tomorrow.”

Olena Tsyhipa said every minute counts for her husband, whose health has deteriorated.

“My belief in his return is unwavering,” she said. “We just have to wait.”

Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn contributed.

Liusiena Zinovkina, 32, sits in a park in Berlin, Germany, on March 19, 2025. Her husband, Kostiantyn, was arrested in Ukraine in May 2023 and remains in Russian custody. She left Ukraine after the war began. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Liusiena Zinovkina, 32, spends time in a park in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2025. She fled to Germany from Ukraine, where her husband was arrested by invading Russian forces in May 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Liusiena Zinovkina, 32, reads a letter from her husband, Kostiantyn, in her room in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2025. She fled to Germany from Ukraine, where her husband was arrested by invading Russian forces in May 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Olena Tsyhipa walks to her home in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 3, 2025. Her husband, journalist and activist Serhii Tsyhipa, was imprisoned by the Russians in the early days of the war in Ukraine in 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Olena Tsyhipa looks at family photos in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2025. Her husband, journalist and activist Serhii Tsyhipa, was imprisoned by the Russians in the early days of the war in Ukraine in 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Olena Tsyhipa looks at family photos in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 3, 2025. Her husband, journalist and activist Serhii Tsyhipa, was imprisoned by the Russians in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Olena Tsyhipa walks near a lake in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 3, 2025. Her husband, journalist and activist Serhii Tsyhipa, was imprisoned by the Russians in the early days of the war in Ukraine in 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE - Oleg Orlov, the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, listens to questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - Ukrainian Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk prepares to testify at the 'people's tribunal' where prosecutors symbolically put Russian President Vladimir Putin on trial for the crime of aggression in Ukraine in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Liusiena Zinovkina, 32, sits in her room in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2025. She fled to Germany from Ukraine, where her husband was arrested by invading Russian forces in May 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)