Zelenskiy's star power draws in celebrity supporters

Hollywood royalty has embraced the president and offered support to his country's war efforts

- Isobel Koshiw

When Ben Stiller walked into the office of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in June, he embraced the wartime leader telling him, “You’re my hero.”

Stiller is one in a line of stars from the entertainment world who made the long journey to Kyiv to meet Zelenskiy – himself a former actor and comedian. A journey that involves an overnight train journey from Poland as commercial flights – let alone private jets – cannot fly in Ukraine’s airspace for safety reasons.

Before Stiller came the actor Sean Penn, who has visited three times since the invasion, and is making a documentary about the war, in which Zelenskiy will no doubt feature.

On his last visit, Penn gave Zelenskiy one of his Oscars to keep until after Ukraine’s victory. It was Penn’s way of demonstrating his belief the president and the country will survive this war.

“I feel terrible. This is for you. It’s just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here with you then I’ll feel better and stronger for the fight,” Penn told Zelenskiy in November.

Other stars hosted by Zelenskiy include the British adventurer Bear Grylls, the Virgin founder, Richard Branson, the actor Jessica Chastain, U2’s Bono, TV host David Letterman, Spanish-American celebrity chef José Andrés and historian Timothy Snyder.