Kyiv, Aug 17 (IANS) Andriy Yermak, the Chief of Staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has thanked the US’ First Lady Melania Trump for calling on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to save deported Ukrainian children.
“The return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia should be a key condition for any peace agreement,” Yermak wrote in a post on social media on Saturday.
Yermak said that he was “grateful” to Melania Trump for her letter to Russian President Putin, in which she called on the leader to “singlehandedly restore” children’s “melodic laughter”.
More than 35,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted during the war and taken to over 100 locations in Russia and Russian-occupied territory, according to the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, an effort led by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab.
Melania Trump had penned a letter to Putin, which was hand-delivered by US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, calling on him to protect children and “nurture the next generation’s hope” as his war on Ukraine continues.
“We must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all — so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded. A simple yet profound concept, Mr. Putin, as I am sure you agree, is that each generation’s descendants begin their lives with a purity — an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology,” the First Lady wrote.
Melania Trump said Putin “can singlehandedly restore children’s “melodic laughter”, adding that “in protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself. Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today. It is time.”
“Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-centre. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger,” she wrote in a letter, dated August 15, to the Russian leader.
“As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope. As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few,” the First Lady said in the one-page letter.
President Trump delivered the letter to Putin ahead of their high-stakes summit in Alaska, a White House official told the media on Saturday.
Melania Trump was not at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, where the nearly three-hour-long huddle between US and Russian officials took place.
Since the start of the war in late February 2022, Russia has abducted thousands of Ukrainian children, forcibly transferring them to Russia, attempting to assign them Russian citizenship and have them attend schools in Russia.
The United Nations criticised Russia in March for the suffering the children in Ukraine have endured because of the war, which has been ongoing for about three-and-a-half years.
Russia has previously argued that it has been shielding kids from the conflict areas.
More than 19,000 children were deported from Ukraine to Russia, adding that the actual number could be far higher, according to a Ukrainian government tracker.
Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday, ahead of the Trump-Putin summit, that Moscow has been stonewalling talks on the return of Ukrainian children.
Ukraine’s leader said that while occasional transfers have taken place, with the assistance of other nations, Kyiv has not been able to strike a wide-ranging agreement with Russia on the matter.
“That is why we wanted to get certain matters settled in this trilateral track: ceasefire, an all-for-all exchange, and the return of children,” Zelensky said.
“This is something everyone benefits from: President Trump benefits, the Russians lose nothing, the Ukrainians lose nothing. It’s a fair compromise.”
–IANS
int/khz
