Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter that calls for peace in Ukraine, having her husband US President Donald Trump hand-deliver it to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their Friday meeting in Alaska.The letter did not specifically name Ukraine, which Putin’s forces invaded in 2022, but beseeched him to think of children and “an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology.”
Nor did the American first lady discuss the fighting other than to say to Putin that he could “singlehandedly restore” the “melodic laughter” of children who have been caught in the conflict.“In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself,” she wrote on White House stationery.
‘Putin could help these children’
A copy of the letter was first obtained by Fox News Digital and later posted on social media by supporters of the U.S. president, including Attorney General Pam Bondi. The first lady said that Putin could help these children with the stroke of a pen. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so that they can be raised as Russian.
The Associated Press documented the grabbing of Ukrainian children in 2022, after which the International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Trump urges ceasefire
Donald Trump has in recent months urged a ceasefire, a step Ukraine and its allies have welcomed and maintained is essential before any peace negotiations can begin. The Kremlin, however, has rejected the idea, saying it is not interested in a temporary halt to fighting but only in a comprehensive peace deal.
So far, Moscow’s terms for peace have been unacceptable to Kyiv. Russia demands that Ukraine surrender four regions it only partly controls, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed illegally in 2014. The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine abandon its NATO ambitions and significantly reduce its military.