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NEW YORK—Filmmaker and actor Sean Penn was in Ukraine to continue working on a documentary about the current Russian attack.
The presidential office wrote Thursday on Facebook that Penn attends press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, where he is Mykhaylo Podolyakadviser to the office of the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky; met with Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and talk to journalists and military personnel about the Russian invasion.
“Sean Penn showed courage that many others, especially Western politicians, lack,” the president’s office wrote on Facebook. “Director he specially came to Kiev to record all the events that are happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.”
Penn was also in Ukraine in November working on a project produced by VICE Studios. Photos from that time show him visiting the front line at one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near area Donetsk.
The Oscar winner has been involved in various anti-war and humanitarian efforts over the years and founded a non-profit disaster relief organization CORE in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, depicted in the documentary Penn citizen.
A representative for Penn did not immediately respond to a request for comment. VICE Studios has not yet commented on this matter.
What happened in Ukraine?
Russia’s recognition of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic from Ukraine and the treaty signed with them gave Putin the pretext for sending “peacekeeping” troops into an area torn apart by conflict since 2014. But it has gone a step further, invading areas beyond eastern Ukraine.
The United States, Europe and Britain are preparing for new sanctions against Moscow and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said it will move more military assets to Eastern Europe.
Putin has demanded that NATO reduce its presence before its eastward expansion in 1997 and which ruled out the entry of Ukraine. The Alliance rejected the demands. Now Putin says he is trying to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government in Kiev.
The Ukrainian government said Russia’s actions as a “full-scale invasion” and imposed martial law across the country. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry urged residents to go to shelters, saying the capital, Kiev, was under attack.
With information from Bloomberg.
