US actor Sean Penn has been gifted an Oscar-shaped award made from war-damaged rail metal by Ukraine, after he skipped Sunday’s ceremony to visit the war-torn country.

Penn, 65, won his third Academy Award for his supporting actor role in political thriller One Battle Another but was absent from the ceremony.

In a video posted by Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the CEO of Ukrainian Railways, Pertsovskyi tells Penn: “You’re missing Oscars… So we made this one. This is from the railcar that was damaged by the Russians”.

A long-time advocate for Ukraine, Penn has visited several times since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of the country four years ago.

He gifted one of his Oscars to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022.

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