Actor Sean Penn hands over his Oscar to Zelensky

‘When you win, bring it back to Malibu’: Actor Sean Penn hands over his Oscar to Zelensky and says he can keep it ‘until Ukraine’s victory’ as he visits war-torn country for the third time this year

• The actor and director has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine since war erupted
• He presented Zelensky with one of his Oscar statuettes in his presidential office
• Penn, 62, won two Best Actor academy awards for roles in Mystic River and Milk
• Zelensky in turn presented Penn with an Order of Merit for his support amid war 

Sean Penn has given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky his Oscar, telling him to bring it back to Malibu when his nation emerges victorious from the war with Russia.

The actor and director, 62, has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine since war broke out in February and had already travelled to Kyiv twice this year prior to today’s trip.

Returning to the Ukrainian capital to see Zelensky, whom he earlier referred to as his ‘great friend’, Penn was filmed withdrawing one of his Academy Awards from a bag and placing it on the Ukrainian president’s desk.

‘This is for you,’ the actor told Zelensky. ‘It’s just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here with you then I’ll feel better and stronger for the fight…

‘When you win, bring it back to Malibu. I’ll feel much better knowing a piece of me is here,’ he concluded. 

Zelensky, who prior to his entry into politics was a well-known actor and comedian, was clearly flattered and gratefully accepted the Oscar statuette, describing it as a ‘great honour’.

He was later seen carefully placing the golden trophy on the mantelpiece in his presidential office.

Zelensky in turn presented Penn with a Ukrainian Order of Merit to thank him ‘for his sincere support and significant contribution to the popularisation of Ukraine in the world’.

Sean Penn (L) has given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) his Oscar, telling him to bring it back to Malibu when his nation emerges victorious from the war with Russia

This handout picture taken and released by Ukraine’s presidential press-service on November 8, 2022 shows the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meeting with US actor Sean Penn (L) after receiving latter’s Oscar statuette during their meeting in Kyiv

Volodymyr Zelensky (2nd-R) is seen walking in the Ukrainian capital with US actor Sean Penn (2nd-L) after their meeting in Kyiv

Penn, who won a pair of Best Actor academy awards for his performances in Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008), is one of several prominent US actors to have made the journey to Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled across the border on February 24.

He was banned from entering Russia in September when Vladimir Putin’s foreign ministry added him, along with Ben Stiller, to a list of US citizens barred from the country due to his overt criticism of the conflict.

Penn was in Ukraine recording a documentary when Russia invaded and was forced to flee, crossing into Poland like many Ukrainian refugees.

He has since expressed great admiration for Zelensky, and also admitted he’d considered taking up arms to fight alongside the Ukrainian military as it continues to battle Russian forces in Ukraine’s south east.

‘Part of what makes [Zelensky] so particularly extraordinary is that courage, he’s the face of so many Ukrainians. I mean this is leadership we aspire to, this is freedom of thought and true leadership that mostly is just so moving,’ Penn said earlier this year.

‘If you’ve been in Ukraine [fighting] has to cross your mind. And you kind of think what century is this? Because I was at the gas station in Brentwood the other day and I’m now thinking about taking up arms against Russia? What the f— is going on?’ 

Stiller meanwhile travelled to Ukraine this summer in his role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced amid the fighting.

The star of Zoolander, Meet the Parents and Dodgeball, told Zelensky: ‘It’s a great honor for me. It’s really wonderful. You’re my hero,’ and also toured several neighbourhoods near the Ukrainian capital affected by the war.

Sean Penn, 62, earlier this year said he was ‘thinking about taking up arms against Russia’ while at the gas station in Brentwood, California shortly after he returned from the war-torn country

Hollywood actor and Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continued, in Kyiv, Ukraine in June

Stiller met with Zelensky after walking through a bombed-out neighborhood in Ukraine in June. At their meeting, Stiller told Zelenskey that he was inspired by him, ‘for what you’ve done in this country and for the world’

Russian and Ukrainian forces remain locked in a stalemate throughout much of the south east of Ukraine. 

Zelensky today hinted at the possibility of peace talks with Russia – a shift from his earlier refusal to negotiate with Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian president urged the international community to ‘force Russia into real peace talks’ and listed his usual conditions for dialogue – the return of all of Ukraine’s occupied lands, compensation for damage caused by the war and the prosecution of war crimes.

The announcement signalled a change in rhetoric for Zelensky, who in September signed a decree stating ‘the impossibility of holding talks’ with Putin. 

But since his preconditions appear to be non-starters for Moscow, it is unlikely that his apparent willingness to reopen communications with the Kremlin will yield any results.

In the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, which the Russians are struggling to take full control of, Moscow’s shelling killed three civilians and wounded seven others over the past 24 hours, according to Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Mr Kyrylenko said the fatalities occurred in the city of Bakhmut, a key target of Russia’s grinding offensive in Donetsk, and the town of Krasnohorivka. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister last week described the Bakhmut area as ‘the epicentre’ of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Elsewhere, two civilians were seriously wounded by unexploded mines in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, where Kyiv’s forces retook broad swathes of territory in September, Kharkiv governor Oleh Synehubov said.

In the partially occupied Kherson region in the south, where Ukraine’s troops are conducting a successful counter-offensive, Russian-installed authorities said they have ‘completed’ measures to evacuate residents ahead of anticipated Ukrainian advances.

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