WASHINGTON — Melania Trump made a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the plight of children affected by the war in Ukraine, sending a letter that was hand-delivered by President Donald Trump during their recent summit in Alaska, two White House officials confirmed on Friday.
The existence of the previously unreported letter highlights a direct, personal channel of communication on one of the most sensitive humanitarian issues of the conflict. While the First Lady, who is Slovenian-born, was not present on the trip, President Trump presented her letter to Putin during their nearly three-hour meeting at a U.S. military base in Anchorage.
While officials did not disclose the full contents of the letter, they confirmed that it specifically mentioned the abductions of children from Ukraine.
The forced transfer of Ukrainian children has been a central and deeply painful issue for Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Ukraine has condemned the removal of tens of thousands of its children to Russia or Russian-occupied territories as a war crime, arguing that it meets the United Nations’ treaty definition of genocide. Moscow has previously stated its actions were aimed at protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has also reported that Russia has inflicted widespread suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights.
The personal appeal from the First Lady was delivered during a high-stakes summit between the two leaders, which ultimately concluded without a ceasefire agreement in the ongoing war.
