Overview
- Penn was absent from the 98th Academy Awards, where he won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another, as Kieran Culkin accepted on his behalf.
- Ukrainian Railways posted video of Penn stepping off a train in central Kyiv and said his trip was kept secret until arrival.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a photo of their meeting and thanked Penn for sustained support since the start of the full-scale war.
- Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi presented Penn with a custom 'IronOscar' forged from metal of a railcar damaged by a Russian attack, captured in video shared online.
- The New York Times reported the Ukraine trip was planned days in advance, and agency photos from AFP showed Penn in Kyiv, underscoring his long-running advocacy that includes a 2023 documentary and lending an Oscar to Zelenskyy in 2022.