WASHINGTON — First Lady Melania Trump revealed on Friday that she has been in frequent contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of an effort to reunify Ukrainian children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war. Her efforts have reunited eight Ukrainian children with their families.
“President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of these children,” the first lady explained, sharing that Putin responded to her August plea to help the children with his own letter, and willingly agreed to engage with her. “For the past few months, both sides have participated in several back channel meetings and calls, all in good faith.”
“Each child has lived in turmoil because of the war in Ukraine,” she said. “Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including one young girl who has now been reunited from Ukraine to Russia.”
Some of the children displaced by the war have turned 18 as the war has dragged on, and are living in Russia as adults, she said. She also wants to help these young people, though their situations require more “coordinated assistance,” saying: “Russia has agreed to rejoin the individuals who have turned 18 within a short period of time.”
U.S. First Lady Melania Trump arrives to make an announcement in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, October 10, 2025. Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“My ongoing mission is twofold,” the first lady said: “to prioritize and optimize a transparent, free flow of health-related information surrounding all children who have [fallen] victim to this war, and to facilitate the reunification of children with their families until each individual returns home.”
Melania Trump’s mission to help Ukrainian children affected by the war began when she gave a letter to her husband to hand-deliver to Putin when Donald Trump met the Russian president at their summit in Alaska on August 15. In her letter, she begged Putin to protect the innocence of children across the world, telling Putin that in doing so, he would “do more than serve Russia alone,” but “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.”
The emotional appeal was effective.
“A child’s soul knows no borders, no flags,” she said Friday at a presser with reporters at the White House. “We must foster a future for our children which is rich with potential, security and complete with free will. A world where dreams will be realized rather than faded by war.”
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In her letter to Putin, Trump had appealed to the infamous world leader as a parent, writing: “Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger.”
“As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope,” she wrote. “As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few. Undeniably, 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.”
Her letter specifically stressed the protection of children’s innocence.
“A simple yet profound concept, Mr. Putin, as I am sure you agree, is that each generation’s descendants begin their lives with a purity — an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology,” she wrote.
