The Oscars – Hollywood’s biggest night of the year – was its usual festival of glitz, humor and emotional actors. However, the more than three-and-a-half hour broadcast on Sunday was a largely politics-free evening and had only one mention of the Ukraine- Russia conflict, despite a week of politics around the war.
During the event, first-time host Conan O’Brien – who kept it mostly light – made a veiled dig at the Donald Trump administration. Referencing the success of “Anora” – which is a tale of a Brooklyn sex worker battling her Moscow oligarch in-laws – O’Brien joked about standing up “to a powerful Russian”.
“Anora” was the big winner at the Oscars, scooping five awards, including best picture.
“Anora is having a good night… That’s great news… I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” the comedian-actor said.
Conan O’Brien lands a SOLID uppercut on trump without saying his name: “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”
HUGE APPLAUSE. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/TopTO7GPMp
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) March 3, 2025
The joke drew resounding applause from the audience.
The witty remarks came after a meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, which descended into an extraordinary on-camera argument.
Trump and Vance raised their voices and accused Zelensky of being disrespectful and ungrateful for US military assistance, as the Ukrainian pushed his demand for US security guarantees as part of any truce.
Trump spoke by phone with Putin last month and then announced negotiations to end the war would begin quickly, blindsiding the European Union and Zelensky.
Russia has openly gloated over Friday’s clash between Trump and Zelensky, praising Trump for altering US policy and denouncing the Ukraine President for challenging Trump’s proposals.
On the other hand, European leaders have leapt to Zelensky’s defence. The West and Ukraine describe Russia’s 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab. Russian President Vladimir Putin casts the conflict as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukraine – or about 113,000 square km – while Ukraine has seized about 450 square km of Russia in an incursion into neighbouring Kursk province, according to open source maps of the war and Russian estimates.