Actor Sean Penn has issued an appeal to billionaires to step forward to purchase fighter jets for Ukraine.
He said on Twitter Thursday that $300 million could purchase “12 aircraft with better tech than Russian Migs or SU’s” — Sukhoi aircraft.
“One billionaire could end this war in Ukraine,” Penn added in a second tweet. “Of course there are add-ons in arming & maintaining creative runways, etc., but seems worth a think.”
He made the plea less than an hour after Ukraine’s Air Force said on Twitter that it needed U.S. F-15s or F-16s to “defend our sky and achieve victory.” It added: “We have not received the tools we need.”
The possibility of getting any planes at all to Ukraine has been diplomatically fraught and would come with increased risk of NATO involvement in a war against nuclear-armed Russia.
Penn and his crew fled from Ukraine to Poland in late February. He was there filming a documentary about the Russian invasion.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Penn the day of the invasion. He posted a silent video of himself with the actor that day on social media.
Penn has established a center in Poland to help Ukrainian refugees through his Community Organized Relief Effort organization.
Last week, Penn threatened to melt down his Oscars (for Best Actor in “Mystic river” and “Milk”) in public if Zelenskyy was not allowed to speak at last month’s Academy Awards ceremony. The Ukrainian president was not given a platform to address the event. The awards ceremony went silent for 30 seconds in a show of solidarity for the nation.