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Penn, 61, posted a photo to his Twitter feed on
Monday showing the movie star wearing a backpack and toting a
piece of luggage on wheels as he trudged along the shoulder of a
road beside a line of cars stretching into the distance.
"Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after
abandoning our car on the side of the road," Penn said in a
caption tweeted with the picture. "Almost all the cars in this
photo carry women & children only, most without any sign of
luggage, and a car their only possession of value."
The tweet did not explain why the Academy Award-winning actor
and his companions were forced to abandon their vehicle.
A spokesperson in Los Angeles, Mara Buxbaum, told Reuters by
email on Tuesday that Penn had "made it out of Ukraine safely."
She declined to answer other questions about his whereabouts or
the circumstances of his departure from Ukraine.
Penn was in Kyiv last Thursday attending a press briefing at the
office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the first day of
Russia's invasion, recording footage for a documentary
chronicling the crisis, Zelenskiy's office said in a statement
at the time.
"Sean Penn is among those who support Ukraine in Ukraine today.
Our country is grateful to him for such a show of courage and
honesty," the statement said.
It said Penn had interviewed Ukrainian political and military
figures as well as journalists as part of the production, for
which he initially visited Ukraine in November.
In a statement last week, the actor acclaimed for Oscar-winning
roles in "Mystic River" and "Milk" praised the Ukrainian people
as "historic symbols of courage" and called Ukraine "the tip of
the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams."
"If we allow it to fight alone, our soul as America is lost,"
Penn wrote.
Penn, whose directorial credits include "Into the Wild" and "The
Crossing Guard," is also known for his political activism and
involvement in various humanitarian causes, including relief
efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake
of 2010 and Pakistan floods in 2012.
He made headlines in 2016 when Rolling Stone magazine published
an interview Penn had secretly conducted with Mexican drug lord
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman at his jungle hideout prior to the
arrest of the cartel boss.
Penn is producing the Ukraine documentary for Vice Studios, a
U.S.-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company, according
to Hollywood trade publication Variety.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra
Maler)
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