Penn previously gifted an Oscars statuette he won to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Sean-Penn-attends-the-7th-Annual-Sean-Penn--Friends-HAITI-RISING-Gala-062624-c81729b1e8384b5f9eb1cba05c0c2c0c.jpg "Sean Penn attends the 7th Annual Sean Penn & Friends HAITI RISING Gala benefiting J/P Haitian Relief Organization")
Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
NEED TO KNOW
- Sean Penn was gifted an Oscars statuette made from metal sourced from a train that was damaged in the Russia-Ukraine war
- Penn, who has won three Oscars, previously gifted a statuette to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
- Penn won his third Oscar at the 2026 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his role in One Battle After Another
Sean Penn received a unique honor following his 2026 Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor for his role in One Battle After Another.
Penn, 65, did not attend the Academy Awards ceremony to receive his third Oscar in person in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15. Instead, the actor was photographed in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Monday, March 16, placing Penn out of the country when Kieran Culkin presented this year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, accepting the honor on Penn's behalf.
On Tuesday, March 17 CEO of Ukrainian Railways Oleksandr Pertsovskyi presented Penn with an Oscars statuette made of metal from a train damaged in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. "You're missing Oscars… So we made this one," Pertsovskyi tells Penn in the video, per the BBC. "This is from the railcar that was damaged by the Russians."
Shortly after the 2026 Academy Awards, The New York Times reported that Penn traveled to Europe in the days before the Oscars and that his plan "as of late last week" was to spend time in Ukraine rather than attend the show, citing two people who spoke anonymously.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a photo of himself and Penn speaking together. "Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is," Zelenskyy, 48, wrote in a caption. "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."
Credit: Antoine Flament/WireImage
Penn has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and Zelenskyy in the years since Russia invaded the Eastern European country in February 2022.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Penn, who has won two previous Academy Awards for Best Actor — one for Mystic River in 2004 and another for his performance in Milk in 2009 — gifted one of his previous statuettes to Ukraine.
“I thought, well, f—, you know? I’ll give them to Ukraine," Penn told Variety in 2023 after gifting the statuette to Zelenskyy at the time. "They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians."
