US actor Sean Penn has been gifted an Oscar-shaped award made from war-damaged rail metal by Ukraine, after he skipped Sunday’s ceremony to visit the war-torn country.
Penn, 65, won his third Academy Award for his supporting actor role in political thriller One Battle Another but was absent from the ceremony.
In a video posted by Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the CEO of Ukrainian Railways, Pertsovskyi tells Penn: “You’re missing Oscars… So we made this one. This is from the railcar that was damaged by the Russians”.
A long-time advocate for Ukraine, Penn has visited several times since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of the country four years ago.
He gifted one of his Oscars to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022.
