Two White House officials said on Friday (August 15th) that the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, mentioned in a private letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin that many children in Ukraine and Russia are in danger due to the ongoing conflict between the two countries.
The officials informed Reuters that President Trump personally handed the letter to Putin during a summit in Alaska. Melania did not accompany President Trump to Alaska.
They declined to disclose the specific contents of the letter, only mentioning that it addressed the issue of children being kidnapped as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
Prior to this, there had been no media reports about such a letter.
For Ukraine, the detention of Ukrainian children by Russia is a highly sensitive issue.
Ukraine claims that without the consent of their families or guardians, Russia has abducted tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russian territory or Russian-occupied areas, which constitutes a war crime and meets the definition of genocide under the United Nations treaty.
Russia has previously stated that it has been protecting vulnerable children in the war-affected areas.
The United Nations Human Rights Office pointed out that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has caused suffering to millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights.
On Friday, Trump and Putin met at a U.S. military base in Alaska for nearly three hours to discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine, but they did not reach an agreement on the issue of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.
(Author’s Note: This article is based on reports from Reuters)