KYIV, March 17 — Film star Sean Penn stepped out of a train carriage in central Kyiv yesterday, thousands of miles away from the glitz of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre where he had failed to turn up to receive his third acting Oscar hours earlier.

Penn, 65, won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in the political thriller One Battle After Another, but skipped Sunday’s ceremony to travel to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the war-battered capital.