Days after visiting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to movie scenes for his documentary on Russia's invasion, Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn discovered himself amongst hundreds of refugees fleeing to Poland, becoming a member of the exodus on foot.
Penn, 61, posted a photograph to his Twitter feed on Monday exhibiting the film star carrying a backpack and toting a chunk of baggage on wheels as he trudged alongside the shoulder of a highway beside a line of automobiles stretching into the space.
"Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after abandoning our automotive on the aspect of the highway," Penn stated in a caption tweeted with the image. "Virtually all of the automobiles on this picture carry girls & kids solely, most with none signal of baggage, and a automotive their solely possession of worth."
The tweet didn't clarify why the Academy Award-winning actor and his companions have been pressured to desert their car.
A spokesperson in Los Angeles, Mara Buxbaum, advised Reuters by e mail on Tuesday that Penn had "made it out of Ukraine safely." She declined to reply different questions on his whereabouts or the circumstances of his departure from Ukraine.
Penn was in Kyiv final Thursday attending a press briefing on the workplace of President Volodymyr Zelensky on the primary day of Russia's invasion, recording footage for a documentary chronicling the disaster, Zelensky's workplace stated in an announcement on the time. Learn full story
"Sean Penn is amongst those that assist Ukraine in Ukraine right now. Our nation is grateful to him for such a present of braveness and honesty," the assertion stated.
It stated Penn had interviewed Ukrainian political and navy figures in addition to journalists as a part of the manufacturing, for which he initially visited Ukraine in November.
In an announcement final week, the actor acclaimed for Oscar-winning roles in "Mystic River" and "Milk" praised the Ukrainian folks as "historic symbols of braveness" and known as Ukraine "the tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of goals."
"If we enable it to struggle alone, our soul as America is misplaced," Penn wrote.
Penn, whose directorial credit embrace "Into the Wild" and "The Crossing Guard," can be identified for his political activism and involvement in varied humanitarian causes, together with reduction efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and Pakistan floods in 2012.
He made headlines in 2016 when Rolling Stone journal printed an interview Penn had secretly performed with Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman at his jungle hideout previous to the arrest of the cartel boss.
Penn is producing the Ukraine documentary for Vice Studios, a U.S.-Canadian digital media and broadcasting firm, in keeping with Hollywood commerce publication Selection.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Modifying by Sandra Maler)