Ukraine thanks Melania Trump for her help in bringing abducted kids home
May 1 (UPI) — U.S. First Lady Melania Trump was instrumental in securing the return of at least 26 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia over the past several months, Ukraine‘s top human rights official said.
Speaking at a Bring Kids Back event in Kyiv on Thursday, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukraine Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner, said Trump had become an important ally in negotiating with Moscow to return children to their families from Russia and regions under Russian control.
“She helps us a lot… It is clear that the involvement of the first lady of the United States makes it [negotiating with Russia] easier for me in some sense,” said Lubinets, who added that Moscow “can’t avoid” responding to Ukrainian requests when they were routed via the White House.
He said that his office held weekly discussions with Trump regarding the issue.
According to Ukraine Government data, 20,570 children had been deported or forcibly displaced from Ukraine by Russia, as of May 1, of whom only 2,126 have been returned.
At least two are alleged to have been taken from their homes in Crimea and sent to a North Korean “summer camp” where they underwent indoctrination.
The latest return in which Trump was involved was of seven children on April 2 following on from three other groups of children since she wrote a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in August personally asking for Ukrainian children deported to Russia to be returned.
The letter was hand-delivered to Putin by U.S. President Donald Trump when the pair met in Alaska for a summit on ending the Ukraine war on Aug. 15.
While Trump’s letter avoids directly accusing Moscow of carrying out deportations, she makes her intent clear, telling Putin he had the power “restore the melodic laughter” of children whose innocence “stands above geography, government, and ideology” with a stroke of his pen “today.”
Following the return of the most recent batch of children, the first lady said she was heartened by the commitment of both sides to the effort.
“Reunifying children with their loved ones in this region of the world remains one of the most important global issues today. I am encouraged that both sides remain committed to ongoing cooperation, raising the safety and well-being of children above this abhorrent war,” she said in a statement.
The initiative has also seen some Russian children displaced by the war return to their families in Russia.
Both Lubinets’ Russian counterpart, children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, and Putin are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in connection with illegal transfers of children from Ukraine to Russia.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Putin in March 2023. The warrants were sealed to protect the children affected.
Neither Russia nor the United States is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute that established the court and neither recognizes its jurisdiction.
The United States, along with Britain and other countries, has however, sanctioned Lvova-Belova for her role in removing children from Ukraine and forced adoptions.
