ANCHORAGE, Alaska: US President Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday.
President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters. Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska.
The officials would not divulge the contents of the letter other than to say it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war in Ukraine.
The existence of the letter was not previously reported.
Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian children has been a deeply sensitive one for Ukraine.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conveyed his gratitude to the first lady on his call with Trump on Saturday, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
“This is a true act of humanism,” Andrii Sybiha added on X.
Previously Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia has inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a US military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
Melania Trump sends letter to Putin about abducted children
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Melania Trump sends letter to Putin about abducted children
- President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters
Zelensky says Ukraine’s peace talks with US constructive but not easy
- Trump has said that ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, now nearing its fourth year and the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, remains his toughest foreign policy challenge
KYIV: Talks with US representatives on a peace plan for Ukraine have been constructive but not easy, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday ahead of his planned consultations with European leaders in coming days.
Zelensky held a call on Saturday with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and is expected to meet French, British and German leaders on Monday in London. Further talks are planned in Brussels.
“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “The conversation was constructive, although not easy.”
Trump has said that ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, now nearing its fourth year and the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, remains his toughest foreign policy challenge.
Despite US mediation and periodic high-level contacts, progress in the peace talks has been slow, with disputes over security guarantees for Kyiv and the status of Russian-occupied territory still unresolved.
Moscow says it is open to negotiations and blames Kyiv and the West for blocking peace, while Ukraine and its allies say Russia is stalling and using diplomacy to entrench its gains.
European leaders have backed a step-by-step diplomatic process for Ukraine, tied to long-term security guarantees and sustained military aid. Trump, however, has focused on rapid deal-making and burden-sharing, and diplomats warn that any talks remain fragile and vulnerable to shifts in US politics.
