Hollywood actor Sean Penn arrives in Ukraine and meets with Zelenskyy. VIDEO
On 16 March, renowned American actor and film director Sean Penn arrived in Ukraine on a visit. He skipped this year’s Oscar ceremony because of his trip to Kyiv.
Penn’s visit to Ukraine was confirmed by Ukrzaliznytsia, which posted a video on its social media accounts, Censor.NET reports.
Details
On the night of 15-16 March, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoured Sean Penn with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in One Battle After Another. However, he did not appear at the awards ceremony. The New York Times then reported that Penn had instead chosen to travel to Ukraine.
"We know how to keep secrets, so we kept quiet about this trip until the very last moment. Now we can say it officially: Sean Penn chose Ukraine over the Oscars! And arrived in Kyiv by Ukrzaliznytsia train. And we can confirm: Sean Penn did not smoke in the vestibule," Ukrzaliznytsia said in a post.
Meeting with Zelenskyy
"Thanks to you, Sean, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have been with Ukraine from the first day of the full-scale war. And today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people," commented the President of Ukraine on social media.
- For Sean Penn, this was his sixth Oscar nomination and third win (as Best Actor in the films "Milk" and "Mystic River").
Sean Penn and Ukraine
- Sean Penn has visited Ukraine several times since the start of the full-scale war. In particular, Penn was in Ukraine at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. He had been working on a film about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s path from comedian to president of the country, but the project later changed and was devoted to the war in Ukraine. It premiered at Berlinale 2023.
- During a visit to Kyiv in November 2022, Penn presented his Oscar statuette to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying it was a "symbolic trinket", and asked Zelenskyy to return the award only when Ukraine wins. In return, Sean Penn received the Order of Merit, Third Class, from the Ukrainian president.
