Anchorage, Alaska – Melania Trump, wife of U.S. President Donald Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said.
Officials said President Trump personally delivered the message to Putin during their talks in Alaska.
Melania Trump, who was born in Slovenia, was not part of her delegation on the trip to Alaska.
The existence of the message was not reported in advance.
Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian children has been a very sensitive issue for Ukraine.
Ukraine has described the kidnapping of tens of thousands of its children and their transfer to Russia or the territories it controls without the consent of their families or guardians as a war crime consistent with the definition of the United Nations Genocide Treaty.
Moscow had previously announced that it was working to protect children at risk from the war zone.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Russia has caused suffering to millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since the war began in 2022.
Trump and Putin met for about three hours at a US military base in Anchorage, without reaching a ceasefire agreement in the war in Ukraine.
