Melania Trump sends personal letter to Putin on fate of Ukrainian children

US First Lady Melania Trump has raised the issue of Ukrainian and Russian children affected by the war in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to two White House officials.

The officials said on August 15 that President Donald Trump personally delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska. Melania Trump, who was born in Slovenia, did not travel to Alaska for the meeting.

While the White House declined to disclose the full contents of the letter, officials confirmed it specifically addressed the abductions of children as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. The existence of the letter had not been previously reported.

The matter of Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian children has long been among the most sensitive issues for Kyiv. Ukraine has accused Moscow of abducting tens of thousands of children and transferring them to Russia or Russian-occupied territories without the consent of their families or guardians. Kyiv has described these actions as war crimes amounting to genocide under United Nations conventions.

Russia has denied the accusations, arguing that it relocated children to protect them from the dangers of the battlefield. However, the United Nations Human Rights Office has reported that since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, millions of Ukrainian children have suffered, with their fundamental rights violated.

According to a team of American experts, as many as 35,000 Ukrainian children remain missing and are believed to be held in Russia or in territories under Russian occupation. Families have been left taking desperate and dangerous measures to try to recover their children.

At the onset of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, children were taken from orphanages and care homes, from the battlefield after losing their parents, or were forcibly removed from their families under coercion.

Ukraine’s “Bring Kids Back” organisation has confirmed that only 1,366 children have been returned or managed to escape so far. Many others are feared to have been placed in Russian military camps, transferred into foster care, or adopted by Russian families.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. They were accused of committing the war crime of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

By Tamilla Hasanova