President of Ukraine Volodymyr ZelenskyMOSCOW, Feb 25Volodymyr Zelensky, against the background of the Russian special operation to demilitarize Ukraine, met with American actor, film director and screenwriter Sean Penn. In November last year, it was reported that Penn visited the territory controlled by the Ukrainian security forces in the Donbass, he plans to make a documentary about Ukraine. Zelensky posted on Instagram a video that shows how he communicates with Penn, but the sound of the publication in the story is turned off. Sean Penn is an Oscar winner for his leading roles in the films Mysterious River and Harvey Milk and a winner of the three largest film festivals in the world — Cannes , Venice and Berlin. On Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided on a special military operation against Ukraine. In a televised address to the Russians, he said that the circumstances «require decisive and immediate action from us, the people's republics of Donbass turned to Russia with a request for help.» According to the Russian leader, all responsibility for the bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine. He urged the Ukrainian military not to follow the criminal orders of the Ukrainian authorities, lay down their arms and go home. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces do not launch any missile, air or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine: military infrastructure, air defense facilities are disabled by high-precision weapons , military airfields and aviation. The ministry assured that the civilian population is not in danger. About two hours later, the Ministry of Defense added that Ukrainian border guards «do not offer any resistance», Ukrainian air defense systems have been suppressed, and the military infrastructure of military air bases has been disabled. The military department denied the information of foreign media about the alleged downing of a Russian plane over Ukraine in the military department.
