Sean Penn missed the Academy Awards on Sunday (March 15) because he was meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The 65-year-old star — who scooped his third Oscar for his supporting role in One Battle After Another at the ceremony — has been praised by the leader of war-torn Ukraine for being a “true friend” to the country amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.
Zelenskiy shared a photo on X of himself and Sean and wrote: “Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people.”
In Sean’s absence, last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner, Keiran Culkin — who was presenting the prize — accepted in the Milk star’s honour.
He quipped: “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening — or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
But Ukraine’s state rail group made sure Sean was honoured with a statuette while he was in Kiev.
Ukrainian railways shared a video of their CEO giving their guest a silver Oscar-shaped statue carved from a flat piece of metal and wrote on X: “Sean Penn came to Ukraine and missed the Academy Awards — so Ukrainian railway gave him one of his own.
“This Oscar was made from the metal of a railway car damaged by Russian shelling. A symbol of resilience.”
Back in 2022, Sean — who previously won the Academy Award for best actor in 2004 and 2009 for Mystic River and Milk respectively — gifted Zelenskiy one of his real Oscar statues during a visit to Ukraine.
Sean Penn opted for the trip to 🇺🇦 vs. Oscar ceremony at Dolby Theater where he was awarded his 3rd 🏆. We couldn’t leave our great friend and loyal Ukrainian Raiwlays passenger without an award. So, I have presented Sean with our IronOscar on behalf of all of us! pic.twitter.com/OLyzOY4h7L
— Oleksandr Pertsovskyi (@Pertsovskyi_O) March 17, 2026
In a video shared on the president’s Telegram channel at the time, Sean told him: “It’s just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here then I’ll feel better and strong enough for the fights.
“When you win, bring it back to Malibu, because I’ll feel much better knowing there’s a piece of me here.”
The trophy will remain in the country until the end of the ongoing war with Russia.
In return, Sean was honoured with Ukraine’s Order of Merit.
Zelenskiy said: “It’s not from me, it’s from Ukraine.”
Sean added: “There are three places in the world that all the pride of my life will be. The place where my daughter was born, the place where my son was born and this.”
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