You can’t really do anything at the moment without hearing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but how many of us out there thought that Sean Penn of all people would end up getting involved with it in some capacity?

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It turns out that as soon as Putin announced his intentions to invade Ukraine, Penn was over there on the first flight he could catch to start filming a documentary about the situation. He was spotted at a press briefing on Thursday in Kyiv listening to government officials speak about the crisis and has also apparently visited the Office of the President and met with deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk, local journalists and members of the Ukrainian military.

Here’s an official statement from the Ukrainian government about what Penn’s up to over there:

The director specially came to Kyiv to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country. 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.

Sean Penn is demonstrating bravery that many others have been lacking, in particular some Western politicians. The more people like that — true friends of Ukraine, who support the fight for freedom — the quicker we can stop this heinous invasion by Russia.

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Sean Penn hey? What a hero!

Whilst other celebrities respond to the situation by offering to match donations to the Ukrainian defence fund up to the tune of a million dollars (Ryan Reynolds – admirable) or film themselves reading a weird monologue about how things would have been different if they had been Putin’s mother (AnnaLyne McCord – very strange, questionable and ultimately useless), Penn is actually out there on the front line digging up facts and trying to help the situation. Literally sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie – although admittedly probably not one that Penn himself would be involved with these days. He’s too busy out there doing it for real!

Anyway, I can’t actually really remember the last time Sean Penn made a film (maybe ‘The Assassination Of Richard Nixon’?) but I do remember that he was indirectly involved with the downfall of legendary Mexican drug lord El Chapo a few years ago. Penn contacted him for a Rolling Stone interview and accidentally ended up getting tracked by the Mexican authorities which played a major part in Chapo finally getting arrested. Not sure if that improves his credibility as a journalist or ruins it.

Basically though, it’s not his first rodeo in this kind of situation and it sounds like he sort of knows what he’s doing. Maybe he’ll have the same impact over in Ukraine and his actions will end up inadvertently leading to the downfall of Putin? Probably not, but you can’t blame the guy for trying. It’s a lot more than most of us are doing right now – changing your profile picture on social media doesn’t count.

I suppose it’s also important to remember that Penn did once kidnap Madonna and tie her up or something when they were going out back in the day and whilst those actions are completely reprehensible, it does seem like he’s at least been trying to make up for them over the past couple of decades with his activism and this trip to Ukraine is the next logical step in this process. I guess you could also argue that it’s important for him ‘as a journalist’ to go and interview Russians and Putin to ‘get the whole side of the story’, but I think most people would probably agree that Putin is definitely in the wrong here invading Ukraine so maybe we can give him a pass here?

The point is that Penn really doesn’t need to be over there getting involved and he should be commended for his actions here. I suppose I’ll reserve judgment until I actually see the documentary, but for now it seems like a great example of a celebrity going above and beyond to use their status to try and help those less fortunate in the world. Fair play to the guy.

For more on the situation in Ukraine, here’s Anonymous hacking Russian TV to show footage from the front lines. Gotta rate Anonymous.