US actor and UN Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller has rejected rumors that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded his trip to Ukraine.
Stiller, who visited Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in June 2022 to mark World Refugee Day, said the trip was self-funded and said the rumors were Russian disinformation:
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“Totally false. Untrue.”
“These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no personal payments,” Stiller said on X on Wednesday.
Totally false. Untrue.
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) February 5, 2025
These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no personal payments. https://t.co/x264Bb7ZBW
The rumors began in recent days after a video bearing the E! News watermark, claiming that actors and actresses received millions of dollars from USAID to visit Ukraine, began circulating.
However, there is no evidence that E! News ever posted such a story.
The video, which has been reshared by numerous social media accounts also claimed that USAID had paid actress Angelina Jolie $20 million, actors Sean Pean $5 million, Jean Claude Van Dam $1.5 million, Orlando Bloom $8 million, and Ben Stiller $4 million to carry out their visits to Ukraine.
The “story” was also shared by EurAsiaDaily (EADaily) news site – a publication identified as a pro-Kremlin propaganda outlet by Estonian detection site Propastop – saw it make it into Google News’ top search results chart. The rumor was subsequently shared by other pro-Kremlin channels, also without citing any credible sources.
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Though all the figures mentioned did visit Ukraine during the war, most visited on behalf of the UN, which is a different agency from the USAID. The UN Guidelines for the Designation of Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors states:
“Goodwill Ambassadors shall not be paid a salary, although a symbolic payment of $1 per year or equivalent may be granted to them. They may be given travel and daily subsistence allowances when they are traveling on behalf of the United Nations.”
Jolie visited Ukraine between April and May 2022 whilst serving as a special envoy for the UN refugee agency. Penn visited Ukraine multiple times in a personal capacity and met with Zelensky while preparing his documentary “Superpower” which he released in 2023 and which was originally available for free on the Paramount+ YouTube channel.
Bloom met Zelensky as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in March 2023. Van Damme was spotted in western Ukraine in December 2022 and was seen photographing alongside soldiers in uniform, though the purpose of his visit along with any sponsorship was not clear.
The Ukrainian news site the New Voice of Ukraine posted a report in February 2023 (on the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion) of 20 celebrities who had visited Ukraine since February 2022. This included actors, directors, philosophers, musicians, writers and photographers.
One of the most noteworthy was the October 2022 live interview with Zelensky on a platform in Kyiv’s metro [subway] by US talk-show host, David Letterman.
At the time of publication none of the Hollywood celebrities, other than Stiller, have commented on these most recent rumors.
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