The US President Donald Trumpʼs wife Melania Trump wrote a personal letter to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, mentioning the kidnapped Ukrainian children.
Reuters reports this, citing sources in the White House.
The agency notes that Trump personally handed Putin a letter from his wife during their talks on the night of August 16. Its contents are not being disclosed.
What is known about the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation?
The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Childrenʼs Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.
At a briefing on March 20, Zelensky said that Ukraine would work to return all Ukrainian deported children. At that time, the president did not have an exact number — different information came at different times. Previously, Ukraine had spoken of at least 19,546 Ukrainian children deported to Russia.
In June, Zelensky said that Russia had offered to exchange Ukrainian children for Russian prisoners of war. On June 2, during the second meeting with Russia in Istanbul, Ukraine handed the Russian delegation a list of 339 abducted Ukrainian children.
Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, after the third meeting in Istanbul in July, emphasized that the Russian Federation provided information on less than 20% of the abducted children on the list. Russia did not provide information or any reaction to more than 200 names. In particular, these are the children of the Kherson Childrenʼs Home, who were abducted by the Russians in 2022.
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