Melania Trump Letter to Putin Handed Over in Alaska
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
U.S. President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter from the first lady on Friday during a crunch meeting in Alaska, Reuters reported.
According to the news agency, citing two White House officials, the letter raised the plight of thousands of Ukrainian children who have reportedly been abducted by Russian forces since Putin ordered an all-out invasion in February 2022.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on Saturday via email outside regular office hours.
Why It Matters
Ukrainian authorities allege that tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by Russian authorities and taken either to Russia or to areas of Ukraine under Russian control.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in response to the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children. Russian authorities said children were removed from war zones for their own safety and described the warrant as "outrageous and unacceptable."
First lady Melania Trump, who is Slovenian, taking a personal interest in the fate of Ukrainian children could put additional pressure on Putin over Russia's conduct in the war.
What To Know
On Friday, Trump met with Putin at the Jointoa, to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine. The talks ended without Putin committing to a ceasefire, though Trump said they had been "very productive" with "many points we agreed on."
Reuters reported that during the meeting, Trump gave Putin a letter written by the first lady that raised concern over the fate of thousands of Ukrainian children said to be removed from their families without consent by Russian authorities. The exact content of the letter has not been reported.
According to Kyiv, about 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted since February 2022, which it said met the United Nations' definition of genocide.
In June 2024, the U.S. said it was aware of "credible reports" of Ukrainian children being listed on Russian adoption websites, which it described as "despicable and appalling."
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15 and first lady of the United States Melania Trump at the Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.,...
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15 and first lady of the United States Melania Trump at the Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., on July 3. More
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY
According to the British newspaper The Sun, some abducted Ukrainian children were barred from speaking in their own language and forced to sing the Russian national anthem. Moscow said it evacuated children from conflict areas as a humanitarian measure.
Trump has said his wife notes that Russia continues to bomb Ukrainian cities despite the U.S. president's telephone calls with Putin.
According to USA Today, the president said in July: "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' And she said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit."
In recent weeks, Russian state media has criticized the fist lady, with one prominent pro-regime TV anchor describing her as a "Ukrainian agent."
Following his meeting with Putin, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he had "largely agreed" with Putin about potential land swaps between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously said he would not hand over any Ukrainian territory to Moscow.
What People Are Saying
U.S. President Donald Trump, commenting on potential Russian sanctions after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Sean Hannity: "I think I don't have to think about that now. … I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now."
Trump also said Putin, widely regarded as a dictator, gave him advice on how to run "honest elections."
Standing alongside Trump in Alaska, Putin said: "Our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect."
Trump said: "I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. … We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it."
What Happens Next
In remains to be seen whether the first lady's letter will prompt any action from Moscow regarding Ukrainian children, and if not, whether the U.S. government will take any action.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
EU leaders to hold talks after Trump-Putin talks upend Ukraine ceasefire push
France, Germany, and the UK are set to hold virtual talks on Sunday after the Trump-Putin summit derailed hopes for a Ukraine ceasefire. Trump, who had previously pushed for an immediate halt to fighting, has pivoted toward backing a broader peace agreement – raising alarms in Kyiv and across Europe. As Zelensky heads to Washington, EU powers are seeking to defend their role in the peace process. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
38 minutes ago
Trump runs into the difficulty of Putin diplomacy and ending a long war
NEW YORK -- President Donald Trump walked into a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin pressing for a ceasefire deal and threatening 'severe consequences' and tough new sanctions if the Kremlin leader failed to agree to halt the fighting in Ukraine. Instead, Trump was the one who stood down, dropping his demand for a ceasefire in favor of pursuing a full peace accord — a position that aligns with Putin's. After calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump wrote as he flew home from Friday's meeting in Alaska that it had been 'determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.' It was a dramatic reversal that laid bare the challenges of dealing with Putin, a cunning adversary, as well as the complexities of a conflict that Trump had repeatedly boasted during his campaign that he could solve within 24 hours. Few details have emerged about what the two leaders discussed or what constituted the progress they both touted. The White House did not respond to messages seeking comment Saturday. While European leaders were relieved that Trump did not agree to a deal that ceded territory or otherwise favored Moscow, the summit allowed Putin to reclaim his place on the world stage and may have bought Russia more time to push forward with its offensive in Ukraine. 'We're back to where we were before without him having gone to Alaska,' said Fiona Hill, who served as Trump's senior adviser on Russia at the National Security Council during his first term, including when he last met Putin in Helsinki in 2018. In an interview, Hill argued that Trump had emerged from the meeting in a weaker position on the world stage because of his reversal. Other leaders, she said, might now look at the U.S. president and think he's 'not the big guy that he thinks he is and certainly not the dealmaking genius.' 'All the way along, Trump was convinced he has incredible forces of persuasion,' she said, but he came out of the meeting without a ceasefire — the 'one thing' he had been pushing for, even after he gave the Russian leader the 'red carpet treatment." Trump has 'run up against a rock in the form of Putin, who doesn't want anything from him apart from Ukraine," she said. At home, Democrats expressed alarm at what at times seemed like a day of deference, with Trump clapping for Putin as he walked down a red carpet during an elaborate ceremony welcoming him to U.S. soil for the first time in a decade. The two rode together in the presidential limousine and exchanged compliments. Trump seemed to revel in particular in Putin echoing his oft-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if Trump had been in office instead of Democrat Joe Biden at the time. Before news cameras, Trump did not use the opportunity to castigate Putin for launching the largest ground invasion in Europe since World War II or human rights abuses he's been accused of committing. Instead, Putin was the one who spoke first, and invited Trump to join him in Moscow next. 'President Trump appears to have been played yet again by Vladimir Putin," said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'The President rolled out a red carpet and warmly greeted a murderous dictator on American soil and reports indicate he got nothing concrete in return.' 'Enough is enough," she went on. 'If President Trump won't act, Congress must do so decisively by passing crushing sanctions when we return in the coming weeks.' Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he supports diplomacy but 'peacemaking must be done responsibly.' 'Instead of caving to Putin, the U.S. should join our allies in levying tough, targeted new sanctions on Russia to intensify the economic pressure,' he said. Trump has tried to cast himself as a peacemaker, taking credit for helping deescalate conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Thailand and Cambodia. He proudly mediated a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and another between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to end decades of fighting. Trump has set his eye on the Nobel Peace Prize, with numerous allies offering nominations. But Trump has struggled to made headway on the world's two most vexing conflicts: the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel's offensive in Gaza against Hamas. In Washington, the summit was met by little response from Trump's allies. Republican lawmakers who spoke out were largely reserved and generally called for continued talks and constructive actions from the Trump administration. 'President Trump brought Rwanda and the DRC to terms, India and Pakistan to terms, Armenia and Azerbaijan to terms. I believe in our President, and believe he will do what he always does — rise to the challenge,' Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, wrote on social media after the summit that 'while the press conference offered few details about their meeting" she was "cautiously optimistic about the signals that some level of progress was made." Murkowski said it 'was also encouraging to hear both presidents reference future meetings" but that Ukraine 'must be part of any negotiated settlement and must freely agree to its terms.' Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally, offered that he was 'very proud' of Trump for having had the face-to-face meeting and was 'cautiously optimistic' that the war might end 'well before Christmas' if a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin transpires. 'I have all the confidence in the world that Donald Trump will make it clear to Putin this war will never start again. If it does, you're going to pay a heavy price,' he said on Fox News. For some Trump allies, the very act of him meeting with Putin was success enough: conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk called it 'a great thing.' But in Europe, the summit was seen as a major diplomatic coup for Putin, who has been eager to emerge from geopolitical isolation. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, praised the summit as a breakthrough in restoring high-level dialogue between Moscow and Washington, describing the talks as 'calm, without ultimatums and threats.' Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said the summit was 'a distinct win for Putin. He didn't yield an inch' but was also 'a distinct setback for Trump. No ceasefire in sight.' 'What the world sees is a weak and wobbling America,' Bildt posted on X.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Antonia Hylton cited reporting from the summit that suggested Karoline Leavitt looked frightened after meeting with Putin.
MSNBC host Antonia Hylton has suggested that President Donald Trump's aides, particularly Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, may have been 'frightened' by what they had witnessed during the president's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Saturday night's episode of MSNBC's The Weekend: Primetime, Hylton spoke to former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul—an Obama appointee—about Trump's summit with Putin in Anchorage on Friday. 'A lot of the press corps that was there, they reported in the minutes and hours after the presser that they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors. What did that indicate to you?' Hylton asked McFaul.
