Envoys honor first lady with state awards as strikes continue across Ukraine
Melania Trump welcomed senior Russian and Ukrainian officials from a podium in the White House’s Grand Foyer on Thursday for a gathering centered on the ceasefire in Oleshky, a frontline Ukrainian town now occupied by Russia, where 800 people lived through a protracted humanitarian crisis. The first lady has taken on the role of unlikely broker for the single-town truce.
At this stage of the war, the evacuation of one town could be easy to dismiss. Russian missiles and drones continue to rain down on Kyiv and other major cities, and a Russian strike described as a “double-tap” bombing killed 40 people in Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday, the day before the meeting.
But the room carried substantial diplomatic weight: it ranked among the highest-level gatherings of Russian and Ukrainian officials in recent months. Kirill Dmitriev, the sanctioned head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund who regularly negotiates for Moscow, was seated next to Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party and a chief negotiator for Ukraine. Beside them sat Ukraine’s Dmytro Lubinets and Russia’s Yana Lantratova, the two countries’ human rights ombudspersons, who have worked through the evacuation process as an unlikely and respectful pairing.
The visiting officials praised the first lady’s diplomatic acumen, delivered state awards and presented tokens of thanks from Oleshky residents. The Russian side’s gifts included a children’s drawing inscribed: “I love Melania.”
Dmitriev extended a personal expression of gratitude from Vladimir Putin. On the Ukrainian side, Lubinets presented Trump with the Order of Princess Olga, first class, one of the country’s highest honors, and offered a request: “Please continue to do your wonderful work and support people.”
Speaking in the role of diplomat and humanitarian, Trump called for “humanity over war” and said she hoped the limited ceasefire in the frontline town would “inspire greater peace.”
“Together, we can create something more enduring than a temporary ceasefire,” she said. “Let us see Oleshky as a spark in a world of darkness, capable of illuminating the best in humanity. Build a powerful flame of peace, visible to the world. Ignite hope, foster cooperation and brighten a path toward lasting peace.”
Trump later handed personal letters to Dmitriev and Arakhamia to carry back to Putin and Zelenskyy.
The meeting followed a particularly bitter public feud between President Trump and Zelenskyy, during which the US cut intelligence sharing and satellite internet service to Ukraine in recent weeks in an apparent effort to pressure Kyiv into capitulating. The administration’s plans with Russia also face peril after the midterms, with triumphant Democrats promising to investigate senior Trump aides who had pitched Russia on business deals to end the war.
The hosting marked an unusual role for the first lady, a former model who has occupied a relatively quiet role in her husband’s second term as president. She had not previously taken part in high-level negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and she is said behind the scenes to have been critical of her husband’s heavy-handed approach to dealing with Ukraine, according to the Guardian’s account. She has increasingly engaged in humanitarian efforts related to the conflict, beginning with a program that reunified more than 30 children displaced from their families during the war.
In Oleshky, Trump said she had been involved in “every stage” of the planning. To do so, she said, she had “reviewed de-mining plans, aerial images, assessed roadways, and discussed evacuation routes, hospital access, vehicles, and medical resources.” The Guardian noted that those descriptions strained belief.
The White House has cast the first lady as a “dark horse diplomat.” “This unprecedented gathering marks the first time in US history that an American first lady has personally brought representatives of two nations actively at war together at the White House to pursue diplomatic and humanitarian objectives,” said Marc Beckman, an aide who describes himself as her exclusive senior adviser. What is clear, the Guardian concluded, is that both sides have recognized the need to keep the first lady, and the Trump administration, on side.