Action star Steven Seagal – who was banned from Ukraine for five years in 2017 after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the actor a Russian passport – spoke about the Ukrainian conflict on Monday, saying he saw the two sides “as one family”.
“Most of us have friends and family in Russia and Ukraine,” the action star told Fox News Digital on Monday. “I see both as one family and I really believe that this is an external entity that spends huge sums of money on propaganda to provoke the two countries to be in conflict with each other.
“We pray that both sides will reach a positive, peaceful solution in which we can live and prosper together in peace,” the 69-year-old added.
The “Under Siege” star has been appointed special envoy for humanitarian relations with the United States by the Russian Foreign Ministry in 2018. The unpaid concert will facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchange, “the agency said.
In 2021, Seagal was officially introduced at a ceremony at the Proputin’s Just Russia-Patriots for the Truth political party.
He received Russian citizenship in 2016 and defended Russia’s leadership in annexing Crimea in 2014, calling Putin “one of the great living world leaders.”
Months after he received Russian citizenship and was personally presented with a passport from Putin, Ukraine considered the “Hard Killing” actor a threat to national security and banned him from entering the country for five years.
Seagal’s citizenship was to be a sign of improved US-Russian relations.
Both Seagal and Putin practice martial arts and have attended several events together during his visits to Russia.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last week, wreaking havoc on the Eastern European nation.
Although the exact death toll is unclear, hundreds of civilians have been reported, including at least 16 children. Hundreds of thousands have already fled the violence in neighboring nations, sparking a huge refugee crisis in Europe.