White House says Melania Trump will meet with representatives of Russia and Ukraine in Washington
U.S. First Lady Melania Trump plans to host a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House, the White House said in a statement.
The meeting is set for November 5, the day Melania Trump is scheduled to speak about the humanitarian mission in the occupied city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region.
“First Lady Melania Trump will personally bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine, two nations actively at war, together at the White House. This event represents an extraordinary moment in American history,” the White House said.
It is unclear who will represent Moscow and Kyiv at Melania Trump’s appearance.
Update: Asked to comment on the White House statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I don’t know anything about this. I have no information about it.”
On October 23, the White House announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt hostilities in Oleshky so local residents could safely leave the city, an agreement the White House credited to Melania Trump.
The two sides ultimately halted hostilities from October 27 to November 1 and carried out a joint humanitarian mission in Oleshky, allowing residents to leave for Russia or Ukraine. Exactly how many accepted the offer remains unknown. The mission was overseen by Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova on the Russian side and Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets on the Ukrainian side.
According to Le Monde, Russian and Ukrainian intelligence services prepared the mission to evacuate civilians from Oleshky, but it was presented as the result of Melania Trump’s mediation.
Oleshky was occupied at the start of the full-scale war in 2022. By the fall of 2026, conditions in the city had become dire: residents lacked food, electricity, and adequate medical care.
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