Ukrainian military recruiters intercepted Angelina Jolie’s convoy at a checkpoint during her unannounced visit to southern Ukraine this week, with local reports claiming her driver was instructed to report for retraining. The Army’s Land Forces briefly published details of the incident before deleting the post and announcing an internal review.
A senior Ukrainian official told POLITICO that mobilisers confronted a member of Jolie’s travelling party, but it remains unclear whether he was taken immediately or ordered to appear later.
In a follow-up message, the Land Forces said that “the information being spread in the media is distorted” and that the circumstances were still being clarified.
Jolie, travelling with the Legacy of War Foundation, toured front-line regions in Kherson and Mykolaiv on Tuesday. She met medical staff, families and volunteers, and was shown reinforced underground shelters for hospitals and schools, as well as protective netting above roads to mitigate near-daily drone attacks.
“Families want safety, peace, and the chance to rebuild their lives,” she said.
Footage of Jolie in Mykolaiv was widely shared on social media. Her representatives declined to comment.
The visit—her second to Ukraine since 2022—comes as Russian forces report continued gains in the east, seizing an estimated 461 square kilometres in Donetsk and 150 square kilometres in Dnipropetrovsk in October.
