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Melania Trump has raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said.
Trump hand-delivered his wife’s letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters news agency. Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska.
US attorney general Pam Bondi shared a copy of the letter written by the first lady on 16 August in a post on the social media platform X.
In the letter the first lady addressed the need to nurture and protect children: “We must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all — so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded”.
“In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself. Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today. It is time.”
Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conveyed his gratitude to the first lady on his call with Trump on Saturday, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
“This is a true act of humanism,” Andrii Sybiha added on X.
Previously Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia has inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a US military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
