By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump announced Friday that eight children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war have been reunited with their families following ongoing talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The first lady in August wrote to Putin and had her husband hand-deliver the letter when he held a summit with the Russian president in Alaska. The letter called for peace in Ukraine.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so they can be raised as Russian. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lobbied various world leaders for help reuniting children he says were taken by Russia after the invasion began.
Speaking at the White House, the first lady said that after Putin responded in writing to her letter, they established an “open channel of communication” regarding the welfare of those children.
Her announcement came as President Donald Trump’s own efforts to broker an end to Putin’s war in Ukraine have stalled, and he repeatedly has expressed frustration over the setback along with what he describes as his disappointment with Russia’s leader.
Melania Trump said the issue of the children is important to her.
“For the past three months, both sides have participated in several back-channel meetings and calls, all in good faith,” she said. “We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war.”
One of her representatives has been working directly with Putin’s team to “ensure the safe reunification of children with their families.” She did not identify the representative.
“In fact, eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours,” she said. “Each child has lived in turmoil because of the war in Ukraine.”
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.
Three of the eight children were separated from their parents and “displaced” to Russia because of front-line fighting, Melania Trump said. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including a girl who has gone from Ukraine to Russia, she said.
Melania Trump said she also raised concerns about children who were minors “at the time they were displaced by the war” but have since reached adulthood and currently live in Russia.
She said that their safe return requires “coordinated assistance” and that Russia has agreed to “rejoin individuals who have turned 18 within a short period of time.”
Reunification efforts continue, she added, and plans were underway for more children to rejoin their families in the “immediate future.”
“I hope peace will come soon,” the first lady said. “It will begin with our children.”
This story has been corrected to show first lady Melania Trump said there were eight children, not eight Ukrainian children, reunited with their families.