Melania Trump to Host Russian and Ukrainian Officials
The White House said the first lady will bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine together for her remarks on the Oleshky ceasefire, and a Ukrainian official said the two countries' human-rights commissioners are expected to attend.
The north front of the White House seen across the North Lawn, June 2024.Illustration by The Good Times, based on a photo by DJTechYT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The painting carries the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license
First lady Melania Trump will bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine, two countries at war, together at the White House for her remarks on the ceasefire in Oleshky, the White House said. The statement did not name the representatives. A Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine's human-rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, and Russia's commissioner for human rights, Yana Lantratova, are expected to attend. The United States sanctioned Lantratova in 2022, so she cannot enter the country without a special State Department waiver. The local truce, which the White House credits to the first lady's own initiative, held from October 27 to the night of November 1 in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine's Kherson region, and let residents leave. The first lady has said nearly 800 people were evacuated, a figure neither Kyiv nor Moscow has confirmed. The Kremlin has ruled out more such operations for now. Separate U.S.-mediated talks between Ukraine and Russia are set for Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11.
"First Lady Melania Trump will personally bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine, two nations actively at war, together at the White House," the statement said, calling it "an extraordinary moment in American history." It said she "independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire in Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region." She will deliver remarks on the ceasefire on Thursday, November 5, at 11 a.m. Eastern.
A Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Lubinets and Lantratova, who coordinated the Oleshky mission and held a joint press briefing in Russian-occupied Crimea before the evacuation, are expected at the event. A spokesperson for Lubinets declined to comment, and neither Kyiv nor Moscow has commented publicly. Lantratova has been under U.S. sanctions since 2022 and would need a special waiver from the State Department to enter the United States.
The truce ran from 3 a.m. on October 27 until 11 p.m. local time on November 1 and allowed civilians who wanted to leave Oleshky to evacuate. Lubinets said both sides agreed to ban the deployment and movement of military equipment during the ceasefire, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Oleshky, under Russian occupation since 2022, had faced severe shortages of food, drinking water, electricity and medical supplies, and Russian forces had blocked aid from reaching it, the Kyiv Independent reported.
The first lady called the ceasefire a "success" and said nearly 800 people were evacuated. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has confirmed how many left or where they went. The Kremlin has ruled out further humanitarian operations of this kind for the foreseeable future.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has said the United States will mediate working-level talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11, and the Kremlin has confirmed it will attend.