Melania Trump writes to Putin about abducted children
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 on Friday.
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 Zelenskiy 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.
US President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, has raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials say.
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 on Friday.
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 Zelenskiy 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.
US President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, has raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials say.
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 on Friday.
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 Zelenskiy 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.
US President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, has raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials say.
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 on Friday.
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 Zelenskiy 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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
12 minutes ago
- ABC News
Putin 'outmanoeuvres' Trump in Alaska
US President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin, to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
AU Financial Review
12 minutes ago
- AU Financial Review
Trump tells Zelensky that Putin wants more of Ukraine
Washington/Moscow/Kyiv | US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (Sunday AEST) that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not', after a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have demanded more Ukrainian land. After the two leaders met in Alaska on Friday, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Putin had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow's main targets, a source familiar with the matter said.
Sky News AU
12 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
'Maybe they'll say no': Trump says Zelensky 'has to agree to deal' as Putin discusses demands before ceasefire to take place in Ukraine
An outline of Russian President Vladimir Putin's conditions for a ceasefire has emerged with US President Donald Trump claiming a deal to end the full scale war is ''pretty close'', but Ukraine has to agree to it, as the two world leaders engaged in discussions at their Alaska summit. Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit, sources briefed on Moscow's thinking said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to travel to Washington on Monday to discuss with Trump a possible settlement of the full-scale war, which Putin launched in February 2022. Although the summit failed to secure the ceasefire he said he had wanted, Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had "largely agreed". "I think we're pretty close to a deal," he said, adding: "Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say 'no'." The two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said their knowledge of Putin's proposals was mostly based on discussions between leaders in Europe, the U.S. and Ukraine, and noted it was not complete. Trump briefed Zelensky and European leaders on his summit discussions early on Saturday. It was not immediately clear if the proposals by Putin were an opening gambit to serve as a starting point for negotiations or more like a final offer that was not subject to discussion. Putin's offer ruled out a ceasefire until a comprehensive deal is reached, blocking a key demand of Zelensky, whose country is hit daily by Russian drones and ballistic missiles. Under the proposed Russian deal, Kyiv would fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the sources said. Ukraine has already rejected any retreat from Ukrainian land such as the Donetsk region, where its troops are dug in and which Kyiv says serves as a crucial defensive structure to prevent Russian attacks deeper into its territory. Russia would be prepared to return comparatively small tracts of Ukrainian land it has occupied in the northern Sumy and northeastern Kharkiv regions, the sources said. Russia holds pockets of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions that total around 440 square km, according to Ukraine's Deep State battlefield mapping project. Ukraine controls around 6,600 square km of Donbas, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and is claimed by Russia. Although the Americans have not spelled this out, the sources said they knew Russia's leader was also seeking - at the very least - formal recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. It was not clear if that meant recognition by the U.S. government or, for instance, all Western powers and Ukraine. Kyiv and its European allies reject formal recognition of Moscow's rule in the peninsula. They said Putin would also expect the lifting of at least some of the array of sanctions on Russia. However, they could not say if this applied to U.S. as well as European sanctions. Trump said on Friday he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil - which is subject to a range of Western sanctions - but might have to "in two or three weeks." Ukraine would also be barred from joining the NATO military alliance, though Putin seemed to be open to Ukraine receiving some kind of security guarantees, the sources said. With Trump now placing Zelensky in the hot seat to agree to a peace deal and ''get it done'', the Ukrainian President has also outlined his conditions for peace before an end to the war.
