Photo: Alamy
First Lady Melania Trump has been credited by the White House and Ukrainian officials with helping secure the return of Ukrainian children separated from their families during the war with Russia.
Among the latest reunifications were five children taken from a children’s home in Kherson after Russian forces captured the southern Ukrainian city in 2022.
The effort is part of a broader campaign by Ukraine and international partners to locate and return thousands of children Kyiv says were taken into Russia or Russian-controlled territory during the conflict.
Two of the children, siblings Yuri and Anastasia, were recently reunited with their mother, Olga, after nearly four years apart.
According to reports, the children had been removed from the Kherson Regional Children’s Home and transported through Russian-occupied Crimea before being placed with a Russian family and issued Russian documents.
The case highlights one of the most serious humanitarian disputes linked to the war in Ukraine.
In a report released March 12, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said Russian authorities committed crimes against humanity by deporting and forcibly transferring Ukrainian children and causing enforced disappearances.
The commission said it had verified the deportation or transfer of more than 1,200 children from five Ukrainian regions and found that about 80 percent of the children in documented cases had not been returned.
Investigators said many of the children were placed with Russian families or in institutions, granted Russian citizenship and separated from their Ukrainian identities.
Ukraine’s Children of War database lists about 20,000 children as deported or forcibly displaced since the war began. As of March 15, officials said 2,047 children had been returned. The most recent reunifications have been linked in part to efforts by the first lady.
The White House said in December that seven children had been reunited with their families, and in February, officials said she helped facilitate another round of returns. Reports indicate that publicly documented efforts associated with Melania Trump have helped return about 20 Ukrainian children to their families.
