Melania Trump says eight Ukrainian children seized by Russians have been reunited with their families

Melania Trump said on Friday that eight Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families after ongoing talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

The US first lady in August wrote a letter to Putin and had her husband hand-deliver it during his meeting with the Russian president in Alaska.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so that they can be raised as Russian.

The first lady, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that Putin responded to her letter and, after that, they had established an “open channel of communication” regarding the welfare of those children.

“We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war,” she said.

The eight children have been reunited with their families “over the past 24 hours”, she added.

The Associated Press documented the seizing 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.

Donald Trump has expressed frustration in recent weeks for not ending the war in Ukraine, which he had promised as a candidate to do within a day.