KYIV, Ukraine - Hollywood star and humanitarian Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to a boxing club in the heavily-shelled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv during her latest trip to the country, the country’s boxing federation and the club’s owner said Monday. The film star, who in the past served as a UN special envoy for refugees, had visited the war-torn country at least twice since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A photo posted by the Boxing Federation of Ukraine shows Jolie and her son, Knox, posing at a boxing gym. “The famous actress Angelina Jolie visited the Spadkoyemets boxing club in Kharkiv,” the federation said in a post on Instagram. “Her son Knox, together with Ukrainian defenders, held a Muay Thai training session at the club,” it added. The second-largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv lies jclose to the border with Russia, whose forces have pummelled the city with artillery since the start of the invasion in early 2022. It is a daily target for Russian drone and missile attacks. The Spadkoyemets club’s owner, Pavlo Chyshko, said he had “had no idea” he would be meeting with Jolie after he received a gym booking for Sunday. “To everyone who asked me –- this is not a joke, not AI. It just happened completely by chance: Angelina Jolie, to our great delight, dropped by our gym,” Chyshko said in a video posted on Instagram. “She complimented us, said she liked our gym, and we thanked her. She asked my son how long he’d been doing sports,” Chyshko said. “That’s real class. And her son is just the same. He shook hands, back and forth ... It was really cool!” he added.
