Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 16, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleMelania Trump wrote to Putin about Ukrainian child abductions. President Trump delivered the letter during a summit in Alaska. The issue remains sensitive and unresolved.
By Steve Holland
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday.
President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters. Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska.
The officials would not divulge the contents of the letter other than to say it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war in Ukraine.
The existence of the letter was not previously reported.
Russia's seizure of Ukrainian children has been a deeply sensitive one for Ukraine.
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 U.N. treaty definition of genocide.
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 begun in 2022.
Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a U.S. military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Sam Holmes)
Humanitarian aid refers to assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to crises, such as natural disasters or conflicts, aimed at saving lives and alleviating suffering.
Child protection involves safeguarding children from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, ensuring their rights are upheld and promoting their well-being and development.
An international organization is an entity established by multiple countries to work together on common goals, such as economic development, humanitarian aid, or security.
A war crime is a serious violation of the laws and customs of war, including acts such as intentionally killing civilians, taking hostages, and torturing prisoners of war.
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