Melania Trump to bring Russian and Ukrainian representatives to White House this week

First lady Melania Trump is set to host delegates from Russia and Ukraine at the White House on Thursday, her office announced Tuesday, describing the gathering as an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American first lady. She will also give remarks about a limited ceasefire she arranged for the city of Oleshky. The move stands out because she has kept a notably low public profile during her husband's second term, though she has taken on more substantive policy work out of view, according to CNN.

Mrs. Trump announced the localized truce on October 23. It ran from October 27 until Sunday and allowed elderly residents to be evacuated safely. Nearly 800 people got out, according to her post on X, and one evacuee was reunited with his wife after 1,711 days apart. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said last month that conditions in the city were dire, with some people eating grass and weeds and lacking medicine, clean water and power.

Her office says she served as the exclusive intermediary with leaders on both sides, using channels she built earlier while working to reunite children separated from their families by the war.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CNN’s reporting. Read the full story at CNN →