Melania Trump Receives Ukraine’s Highest Women’s Award — SkimNews
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- Zelensky awarded Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, for her “significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine,” according to the presidential decree.
- The Kherson ceasefire ended, enabling the evacuation of several hundred people from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.
- The White House said Melania Trump independently initiated engagement between the warring nations and secured the ceasefire, calling it unprecedented for an American first lady; both sides thanked her without detailing her role.
- Dmytro Lubinets and Russian ombudsman Yna Lantratova traveled together into Oleshky for the evacuation, an unusual display of cooperation; they are due at Thursday’s White House talks on Melania Trump’s invitation, where she will speak at 11:00 (16:00 GMT).
- Davyd Arakhamia, the Ukrainian MP who heads Zelensky’s party, maintained informal contact between the White House and Moscow during the ceasefire, according to diplomatic sources cited by Ukrainian media, and confirmed he will take part in Thursday’s talks; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kirill Dmitriev will join Russia’s delegation.
- Melania Trump said in 2025 that an open channel with Vladimir Putin had allowed displaced Ukrainian children to reunite with families; the UN calls deportation and forcible transfer a crime against humanity and a war crime, and Ukraine says almost 20,000 children were illegally sent to Russia and Belarus since 2022.
- Steve Witkoff said Russian, Ukrainian and American representatives are due to meet in Abu Dhabi next week, the first trilateral meeting since February, focused on postwar security agreements and de-escalation.
Why it matters: Melania Trump gains Ukraine’s highest award for women after the Oleshky ceasefire enabled the evacuation of several hundred people, while Thursday’s meeting turns her initiative into direct high-level contact between Moscow and Kyiv. The unusual arrangement also leaves the precise limits of her role undefined.
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