{"id":349758,"date":"2025-08-16T18:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T18:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349758\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T18:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T18:18:10","slug":"donald-trump-reportedly-delivered-letter-from-first-lady-to-vladimir-putin-melania-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349758\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump reportedly delivered letter from first lady to Vladimir Putin | Melania Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> hand-delivered a personal letter from first lady Melania Trump<\/a> to Russian leader Vladimir Putin<\/a> raising the plight of Ukrainian and Russian children caught in the middle of the ongoing war between the two European countries, it was reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The contents of the letter were unknown \u2013 but two Trump administration<\/a> officials told Reuters that it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war that broke out after Russia<\/a> invaded Ukraine <\/a>in 2022.<\/p>\n

Putin was indicted by the international criminal court<\/a> in 2023, and still faces arrest<\/a> in 125 countries, for his alleged role in the war crime of abducting those children and transferring them from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n

Slovenian-born Melania Trump<\/a> did not attend the peace summit between Trump and Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.<\/p>\n

But she has previously said that her ambition as US first lady was to be akin to Eleanor Roosevelt, who was known for her work advocating for children\u2019s rights and welfare during Franklin D Roosevelt\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

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 United Nations treaty definition of genocide.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, conveyed his gratitude to the US first lady on his call with Trump on Saturday, Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the conversation, President Zelenskyy also conveyed his gratitude to first lady Melania Trump for her sincere attention and efforts to bring forcibly deported Ukrainian kids back,\u201d Sybiha said on X<\/a>. \u201cThis is a true act of humanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of Friday\u2019s summit, the White House stated<\/a> that Russia\u2019s abduction of more than 20,000 Ukrainian children \u201cremains a concern\u201d for Trump seven months into his second presidency. Moscow has previously said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.<\/p>\n

The issue returned to the headlines earlier in August<\/a>, when the non-governmental organization Save Ukraine accused Russia of \u201cstate-sponsored child trafficking\u201d after a group of administrators in Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine published an online catalogue of what they called Ukrainian orphans.<\/p>\n

Organization head Mykola Kuleba said the database from the Russia-installed administration\u2019s education ministry in the Luhansk region contains data on 294 Ukrainian children under the age of 17 who have been separated from their parents.<\/p>\n

Kuleba noted the website shows the names, photos, descriptions of personalities and hobbies of the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia isn\u2019t even trying to hide it any more,\u201d Kuleba said. \u201cIt\u2019s openly trafficking Ukrainian children.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way they describe our children is no different from a slave catalogue. This is real child trafficking in the 21st century, which the world must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

After news of the first lady\u2019s letter was posted, the Bring Kids Back UA initiative expressed gratitude to Melania Trump for her concern. \u201cDeep gratitude to [the first lady] for caring so profoundly about the fate of Ukraine\u2019s children. Each word of support brings them closer to their families, communities and home,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

US lawmakers have demanded the return of Ukraine\u2019s children from Russia before any peace deal is agreed to and in July introduced a congressional resolution<\/a> calling for their return.<\/p>\n

Led by Texas Republican congressman Michael McCaul and New York Democrat Gregory Meeks, the resolution condemns Russia\u2019s abduction, forcible transfer and facilitation of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. A US Senate version<\/a> was introduced by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley and Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat.<\/p>\n

Meeks said \u201cthe Russian military has cruelly abducted and illegally deported tens of thousands of Ukrainian children from their homeland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese atrocities are not isolated incidents,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cThey are the direct result of Putin\u2019s war of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump hand-delivered a personal letter from first lady Melania Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin raising the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-349758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}