Orlando Bloom visits war-scarred east Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine – Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom has paid an unannounced visit to war-scarred eastern Ukraine in his role as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.

Ukrainian television showed the 39-year-old British actor, who made his breakthrough as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings, touring a school Wednesday, April 27, in Slavyansk, a former pro-Russian rebel stronghold now under the Western-backed government’s control.

In a video clip that went viral in Ukraine, Bloom was shown walking down the school’s hallway with girls chasing him and shouting: “He is real! He is real! It’s Legolas!”

Many Ukrainian social media users were convinced that the video was a fake, but Bloom’s visit was soon confirmed by UNICEF.

“Orlando Bloom is in Ukraine on an official visit as a goodwill ambassador, and is meeting children affected during the conflict,” the Fund’s Kiev spokeswoman Anna Sukhodolska told Agence France-Presse.

“The details of his visit and the program are not being disclosed for safety reasons,” she added. 

Around 9,200 people have died since parts of Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland revolted two months after the ouster of Kiev’s Moscow-backed president in February 2014.

A series of truce agreements have helped reduce the violence, although sporadic clashes persist.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s chief monitor in Ukraine said in Vienna on Thursday that his group in recent weeks had registered a surge in ceasefire violations. – Rappler.com