Melania sends Putin deeply personal letter that Trump hand-delivered in Alaska

Daily Mail​

16 hours ago

First Lady Melania Trump wrote a personal letter to Vladimir Putin in which she criticized the forced kidnapping children, officials said.
Although Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska, she made sure her thoughts were heard and had the note hand-delivered through her husband, two officials told Reuters.
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 subject for Ukraine.
Kyiv 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.
Previously, Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
However, a database of nearly 300 Ukrainian children up for adoption popped up. They are presented with photos, age, gender and personality traits. Some were described as 'obedient' and 'calm.'
It allowed prospective adopters to filter children by age, eye and hair color, and the preferred form of guardianship, such as adoption or foster care.
While Ukrainian officials have identified nearly 20,000 children who have been abducted by Russia, the real number is believed to be far higher. Some believe it could be as 300,000.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
In recent months, Trump has been more publicly critical of Putin's continued missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, crediting Melania for calling out the Russian leader's violence against Ukrainian civilians.
Trump previously explained that he speaks to the Russian leader often, before sharing how Melania has helped in pointing out Putin's continued bombing of Ukraine.
'My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night, I go home, I tell the first lady... I spoke with Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She [says]: "Oh, really, another city was just hit,"' Trump said.
Ahead of Friday's trip to Anchorage, Trump tempered expectations about what he might accomplish in Alaska, giving himself a '25 percent' failure rate.
'The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal,' Trump said.
'But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,' Trump added.
Trump previously explained that he speaks to the Russian leader often, before sharing how Melania has helped in pointing out Putin's continued bombing of Ukraine
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.
The Putin and Trump Administrations on Friday ended with the US and Russian leaders admitting there was still work to be done.
After the meeting concluded, the two leaders held a brief joint press conference.
In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first - at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference - and then didn't answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage.
Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes.
Speaking aboard Air Force One as it flew toward Anchorage, the president declared his mission was nothing less than to 'stop the killing' and demanded that a truce between Russia and Ukraine be reached 'rapidly.'
'I don't know if it's going to be today,' Trump admitted, 'but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today - but I want the killing to stop.'
Trump said he made 'some headway' during his 2.5-hour-long meeting.
'We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,' Trump said. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.'
What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war.
Trump, who held a summit with Putin on Friday, said he agrees the best way to end the war was to go straight to a peace settlement - not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have been demanding.
Trump signaled that he and Putin had discussed potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine, a proposal that has left Europe reeling as analysts brand it 'deeply disturbing' and a 'clear 1-0 for Putin.'
The US also reportedly proposed an agreement that would see Ukraine not join Nato - but instead be offered Nato-esque protections similar to Article 5, diplomatic sources have claimed.
Article 5 on Nato's founding treaty agrees collective defense - meaning allies see an attack on one as an attack on all of them.
Trump reportedly floated the plan with Zelensky and European leaders during a call after his meeting with Putin.