Melania Trump announces return of Ukrainian children

After her appeal to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in the summer, First Lady Melania Trump announced the return of several children who had been torn from their families in the Ukraine war. In the past 24 hours they have been reunited with their families, said the American First Lady in a speech at the White House this morning (local time). Such a speech is unusual: her husband, US President Donald Trump, was not there.

The fates of the eight children who returned are different: three children were separated from their parents due to the fighting at the front and brought to Russia, as Melania Trump said. Another five were separated from their family members across borders. Among them is a young girl who has now been brought back to Russia from Ukraine. The First Lady promised that more children could follow. We are in contact with the Russian side about the whereabouts of Ukrainian children in Russia.

In August, Melania Trump gave her husband a letter admonishing peace and the protection of children when he met with Putin in Alaska. She didn’t mention Ukraine at all in the letter. However, she describes the tragic situation of children in war zones and appealed to the Russian President’s responsibility to protect the innocence of these children. They deserve this regardless of where they live, their government and their ideology.

In 2023, the Ukrainian government reported a figure of around 19,500 abducted children and young people in Russia and the Ukrainian areas controlled by Moscow. In September, President Volodymyr Zelensky informed about 1,625 minors who had returned to government territory. The “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative launched by Kyiv regularly reports on returnees. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against President Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lwowa-Belowa on allegations of illegal abduction of Ukrainian children and young people.