US First Lady Melania Trump said on Friday that eight children abducted and held captive in Russia had been returned to Ukraine after she secured an “open channel of communication” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Much has unfolded since President Putin received my letter last August,” the First Lady told reporters at the White House, referring to a message she penned which was passed to the Russian president by Donald Trump in Alaska before a high-stakes summit.
“He responded in writing, signaling a willingness to engage with me directly and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia,” Mrs Trump said.
“Since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of these children. For the past three months, both sides have participated in several back channel meetings and calls, all in good faith.”
Mrs Trump added that her representative had been working with Putin’s team to secure the safe reunification of children with their families, including eight children who were brought back to their families in the past 24 hours.
Three were “separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting,” while the other five were separated from family members across the border, she said.
This passive framing conflicts with the accounts of Ukrainian officials and rights groups, who have extensively documented Ukrainian children being forcibly deported to Russia.
“This remains an ongoing effort. Plans are already underway to reunify more children in the immediate future,” the First Lady added.
In addition to releasing the eight children involved, Mrs Trump said that Russian officials have provided biographies and photographs of the children reunited with families this week, “along with an overview of the social, medical and psychological services” they received.
Mrs Trump claimed this shows that Russia “has demonstrated a willingness to disclose objective and detailed information reflective of the current situation.”
“The US government confirmed that the facts contained within this document are accurate,” she continued, adding that this had been done in cooperation with Ukraine’s government.
The First Lady finished by noting that she had raised concerns regarding “those who were minors at the time they were displaced by the war, but have since reached adulthood and currently reside in Russia.”
She indicated that Russia has agreed to return adults who were abducted as minors but who have since turned 18.
Born in Slovenia, Mrs Trump has emerged as a significant voice in the Trump administration, influencing her husband’s stance on Ukraine.
In a recent Oval Office conversation, Trump revealed that his wife had been drawing his attention to the devastation that Russian air strikes were causing in Ukrainian cities after his calls with Putin.
“I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation’,” the President recalled. “And she says, ‘Oh really, another city was just hit.’”
In particular, the First Lady has dedicated herself to the fate of Ukrainian children affected by the war.
On Sept. 24, she met with Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss “shared values, first and foremost the protection of children and their childhood,” according to Zelenska.
“A child’s soul knows no borders, no flags. We must foster a future for our children which is rich with potential, security and complete with free will. A world where dreams will be realised, rather than faded by war,” Mrs Trump said on Friday.
A Yale report from September tracking the location of 35,000 or more Ukrainian children abducted by Russia found that some children had been subjected to forced re-education and militarization, including being made to produce drones for Russia in some cases.