In a surprise disclosure Friday, Melania Trump said she’s spent the past three months quietly negotiating with Vladimir Putin’s team to reunite children torn apart by the war in Ukraine.
According to her announcement, eight children have already been reunited with their families through these communications. The “open channel” has reportedly involved her staff and Russian officials, not direct, personal contact with Putin.
As Politico reports:
In one of her most substantive public remarks since her husband’s return to office, Trump said her representatives and Putin’s office have “participated in several backchannel meetings and calls, all in good faith,” about the welfare of children affected by the war.
“President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of children for the past three months,” Trump said, adding that both sides “agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved.”
Trump claimed that eight Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families in the past 24 hours as part of the initiative. Three of the children had been separated from their parents and displaced inside Russia due to front-line fighting, she said, while five others had been cut off from family members across borders since the early stages of the conflict.
The first lady said she had received documentation and photographs from Russian officials verifying the identities and conditions of the children involved, including a “verification report” prepared by the commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on human rights and the Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights. The facts have been confirmed by the U.S. government, she said.
Trump framed the effort in sweeping terms. “This is an important initiative,” she said. “It is still on shared purpose and lasting impact. My ongoing mission is two-fold — to optimize a transparent, free-flow exchange of information surrounding all children who have fallen victim to this war and to facilitate the regular communication of children with their families until each individual returns home.”
The first lady emphasized that the effort was humanitarian in nature, focused solely on child reunification and not tied to political negotiations or alliances.
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