Ben Stiller meets Ukrainian president Zelensky in Kyiv: "You're my hero"

In the series of unexpected encounters Volodymyr Zelensky has had since the Russian attack on Ukraine, the latest was with American actor and director Ben Stiller.

Photo: UNHCR

The legendary Derek Zoolander visited Ukraine and met with the country's president, in his role as Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Photo: UNHCR - Andrew McConnell

Ben Stiller, one of the most committed and active stars in Hollywood, has not hesitated to proclaim his admiration for the work of Volodymyr Zelensky in this conflict.

Photo: UNHCR

"It's really wonderful. You're my hero," the filmmaker told the Ukrainian president as soon as he saw him, in a video that Zelensky himself also shared on his social media.

As reported by 'New York Post,' Ben Stiller is impressed by the way in which Volodymyr Zelensky has led Ukraine and its citizens.

According to the actor, it's "inspiring" what Volodymyr Zelensky is doing, especially because he comes from a past as a comedy actor, something he shares with Ben Stiller.

"It's hard to understand what's actually going on here if you haven't been here," Ben Stiller said. "It's something else to actually see it and feel it, and then to talk to the people. We talked to a bunch of people this morning... And that's a lot more shocking."

Photo: UNHCR

For his part, Zelensky thanked Ben Stiller for appearing in Kyiv, acknowledging that it is "an honor" to receive him and telling him all he knows about his career in Hollywood.

Ben Stiller's visit was not limited to a meeting with Zelensky. Before meeting with the Ukrainian president, he toured some of the formerly Russian-occupied settlements in Kyiv.

Photo: UNHCR

The actor was accompanied by Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR representative in Ukraine. She served as a guide and took him, among others, to the residential areas of Irpin. Stiller talked to the affected citizens, Zelensky reported on his website.

Photo: UNHCR

Even a day before, Ben Stiller had already passed through Poland to visit temporarily displaced Ukrainian citizens.

Photo: UNHCR - Andrew McConnell

The United Nations estimates that 13 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes since the Russian invasion. Five million of them have left the country.

Zelensky told Stiller that if Irpin shocked him, some other places in Ukraine are surely worse. "What you saw in Irpin is definitely dreadful. But it is even worse to just imagine what is happening in the settlements that are still under temporary occupation in the east."

The objective of the visit was to bring Ukraine and UNHCR closer together and to seek ways of better cooperation to help, as much as possible, the Ukrainian people.

Photo: UNHCR

Without a doubt, one way this visit had an impact was that it brought a big star to Kyiv and, with him, a renewed attention to the situation in Ukraine.

Photo: UNHCR

Even though the conflict continues to last and nothing can be predicted, it wouldn't surprise us if we saw Ben Stiller and his hero Zelensky making some Hollywood project together in the future.