Jared Leto Ukraine Mention Causes Stir - Actor to Visit Country With His Band

By Sami K. Martin, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 03, 2014

During his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars last night, Jared Leto stirred the pot when he mention the country of Ukraine, which is in the midst of political turmoil. Leto and his band are due to play in the country in a few weeks, making his Oscar dedication even more meaningful.

"To all the dreamers out there around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela … This is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS and to those of you who have ever felt injustice to who you are or who you loved. I stand here with you," Leto said in his speech.

Backstage, Leto revealed that his band, "30 Seconds to Mars," will soon be performing in the country as well as Thailand. However, the political turmoil has disrupted his plans to perform in Venezuela. Leto is passionate about performing and helping others and stays up-to-date on the situations within the countries he plans to visit.

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"We have a show in the Ukraine in a couple of weeks. We have a show in Thailand in a few weeks. We had a show in Venezuela in the works. So these things: social unrest, social issues like this affect us in a really immediate way. So I felt on behalf of the people that I interact with (on social media) and my own interests as a person in a global band, it was important to address those things," Leto said, according to Fox News.

In an interesting turn of events, Russia decided not to air the Oscars live and instead devote the time to news, given the severity of the issues surrounding the country.

"Due to a large number of news reports on the situation around the autonomous republic of Crimea and Ukraine and due to the viewers' increased interest in the news, Channel One considers the live broadcasting of the Oscar ceremony for five hours to be inappropriate, especially in the early morning hours, when the maximum amount of news broadcasting is done," a spokesperson for the network told The Guardian.