First Lady Melania Trump welcomed senior representatives from Russia and Ukraine to the White House on Thursday after she helped arrange a temporary ceasefire in a southern Ukrainian town.
Melania Trump gathered the officials in the White House Cross Hall. Ukraine sent human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia. Russia sent human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova and special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
The group met to recognize a six-day localized ceasefire in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region. The pause allowed nearly 800 residents to evacuate and permitted humanitarian aid to enter. Both sides had signed agreements naming Melania Trump as exclusive intermediary.
She told the gathering that the sides chose humanity over war. She added that the lives of innocent people must transcend the division of war and that she hoped Oleshky would inspire greater peace. Later she said the sides must use the courage from Oleshky to find common ground through shared concern for the suffering of innocent people and create something more enduring than a temporary ceasefire.
Melania Trump then handed personal letters to Dmitriev and Arakhamia for delivery to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukrainian officials also presented her with the Order of Princess Olga, which Zelensky had awarded her earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump held an unscheduled meeting with Kirill Dmitriev at the White House. Trump told reporters he did not meet the Ukrainian officials who attended the earlier event.
He said an agreement was coming. He described it as a big agreement that would involve more than Ukraine and might involve all of Europe. He called it a big, beautiful agreement that would leave everyone thrilled.
The White House event followed Melania Trump’s earlier work reviewing demining plans, aerial images, roadways, and evacuation routes for the Oleshky operation. Talks aimed at a wider settlement were scheduled to continue the following week in Abu Dhabi.
