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Actor and former boxer Mickey Rourke is speaking out about the Russia-Ukraine war, calling it a "nightmare kind of scenario" in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, and noting he prays to God that Russian President Vladimir Putin puts an end to it.
"I had the time of my life," Rourke told Fox News Digital of visiting the country four years ago for a professional fight. "The people couldn't have been nicer, more polite, more respectful."
While he was there, Rourke said he met with Putin.
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"He took us to a very famous museum in St. Petersburg. And then later he took me to a children's cancer hospital. And we went in there and visited the really, really sick, little, tiny, tiny kids," Rourke recalled.
Mickey Rourke recalled meeting Vladimir Putin four years ago. He is pictured here in 2014 wearing a T-shirt with the Russian president's face on it. (Getty Images)
"I looked over at him and I saw him and, nobody's going to want to hear this, but I saw a man with empathy and who was really moved by what these children are going through," Rourke, who once wore a T-shirt with Putin's face on it in 2014 and reportedly spoke kindly of him at the time, said.
"Then now there's this whole other thing that's happening," Rourke added, emphasizing that most Russians don't know what's going on.
"You can't hate every f---ing Russian cause most of them don't know what's going on."
"You can't hate every f---ing Russian cause most of them don't know what's going on. But I think I saw the side … that was different than the rest of the world sees, but I also see what's going on now. So to me, it's like a nightmare kind of scenario."
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Mickey Rourke said he prays to God that Putin will end the war. (Getty Images)
Rourke, who has been promoting the film "Man of God," said he prays to God that Putin will end the war.
"When I pray at night, I pray, 'Please, God, give, you know, let him find something inside his soul to just say, 'OK, that's it,'" Rourke said.
Rourke revealed his friend and assistant, Dima, has family members currently in Ukraine.
"It's hard to see somebody who I love more than anybody else in the world in that much pain every day and that much worry," Rourke said.
Mickey Rourke spoke about a friend whose family is in Ukraine. (Getty Images)
"I've gotta see him in the state of mind that he's in right now. I feel for him and I pray for him and I just wish this thing would stop yesterday."
Of the Klitschko brothers fighting for their country, Rourke – who noted he knows "both of them very well" – said, "they're not afraid to die."
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"I mean, look, they have enough money where they could have gotten on a private plane and got the f--- out of there," Rourke said. "And [when] I hear them talk, they're not frightened, they're angry and they're gonna, they'll take a bullet. It's written all over their faces."
"They're not afraid to die," Rourke stated. "And I think that's the way the rest of Ukraine is also, but they're setting an example of, 'You're gonna have to kill me first.' And that's a very dangerous kind of adversary to beat, especially when you're on your Homeland."
Putin launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine on Feb. 24 after claiming that two separatist regions of Ukraine were independent.
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