Photo: Andrea Hanks / The White House / Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Melania Trump at the governors’ dinner at the White House on February 22, 2025. Archive illustration, not Thursday’s meeting. Resized and cropped.
WASHINGTON – First lady Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House Thursday and called for a lasting peace, building on a limited humanitarian truce that allowed hundreds of civilians to leave the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.
She urged the sides to seek “something more enduring than a temporary cease-fire,” according to the New York Post’s report from the event. She said the experience in Oleshky could “build a powerful flame of peace.”
Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova joined the first lady, the Post reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, was also present and spoke at the White House event, according to an Associated Press bulletin.
A humanitarian pause, not an end to the war
Oleshky is in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and is occupied by Russian forces. The localized truce began October 27 and lasted six days, allowing hundreds of residents to be evacuated, NBC News reported. The pause also enabled humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the Post.
The evacuation and aid operation was narrower than a nationwide ceasefire. Thursday’s gathering and the first lady’s appeal for peace did not amount to an announcement that Russia and Ukraine had ended the fighting or signed a new peace agreement.
In its November 3 announcement of the meeting, the White House credited Melania Trump with initiating engagement between the two sides and helping secure the Oleshky ceasefire. That statement described the administration’s account of her role. NBC also reported that Pope Leo XIV and European officials had pressed for the humanitarian pause.
Turning a limited opening into lasting peace
The first lady presented the Oleshky operation as a starting point rather than a completed peace settlement. “What matters is not the modesty of this beginning, but the determination to turn it into something extraordinary,” she said, according to the Post.
The immediate result was a rare White House gathering involving officials from both countries after an evacuation operation. Whether that limited cooperation can support a broader agreement remains unresolved. The sources cited here did not announce a national ceasefire or provide a full transcript of Thursday’s discussions.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
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