Melania Trump receives Ukraine’s Order of Princess Olha at White House meeting on Oleshky evacuation

U.S. first lady Melania Trump met with Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House following a humanitarian mission in the occupied town of Oleshky. Russia was represented by ombudswoman Yana Lantratova and presidential special envoy Kirill Dmitriev; Ukraine was represented by ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and Davyd Arakhamia, who heads the Servant of the People faction in parliament.The first lady said she had been involved in every stage of preparations for the humanitarian mission. “I reviewed demining plans, aerial images, assessed roadways, and discussed evacuation routes, hospital access, vehicles, and medical resources. I was made aware of the preferred dates and timing of the operation,” Melania Trump said.She also said about 800 people had been evacuated from Oleshky. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has confirmed that figure. Shortly after the humanitarian mission ended, Lantratova said 750 residents had been given the opportunity to leave the city for Ukraine or Russia, but “far fewer than 750 people left.” Lubinets said the two sides had agreed not to disclose how many Oleshky residents had left for Ukraine and how many for Russia.Melania Trump said the ceasefire in Oleshky would have been impossible without the involvement of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. In her view, their cooperation on this issue sets “a meaningful precedent for advancing peace throughout the region.” She gave Arakhamia and Dmitriev personal letters for Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.Dmitriev spoke after the first lady. He thanked her for saving “many lives.” He gave her a drawing that he said was by Lidia, an 11-year-old girl evacuated from Oleshky. The drawing reads: “I love Melania.”Ukraine’s representatives, Arakhamia and Lubinets, spoke after Dmitriev. Arakhamia said the Oleshky ceasefire was the most significant de-escalation since 2022. “We are creating a momentum where both sides are learning the… mechanics of how to actually keep the peace when the peace comes,” he said. Lubinets presented the first lady with the Order of Princess Olga, First Class. Zelensky had signed the decree awarding it to Melania Trump on November 2.Lantratova did not speak at the meeting. The reason is unknown.U.S. President Donald Trump met with Dmitriev at the White House, then announced a “big beautiful agreement” on Ukraine that “might involve all of Europe.” He said he had held a separate meeting only with Russia’s representative, not with Ukraine’s representatives. Trump did not say what they had discussed.“But I’m just telling you there’s going to be an agreement. It’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine. It’s going to be a very big – it’s going to involve more than Ukraine and I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It’s going to be a big beautiful agreement and everyone’s going to be thrilled,” the U.S. president said.Dmitriev has not yet commented on the meeting.Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a U.S. negotiator, said representatives of the United States, Ukraine, NATO, and Europe had met in Brussels to discuss security guarantees for the entire European continent. Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, also spoke about the meeting. “Together with representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and NATO, we discussed what [security] guarantees the United States and other partners should provide to Ukraine, as well as a new strategy for European security,” Umerov said.In a post on X, Kushner wrote that, for more than 30 years, Europe and Russia “have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework,” but that “decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge.” Still, he wrote, accomplishing it “is essential to lasting peace.”Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment. We are exploring five principal goals: permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability.He wrote that any agreements “must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation.” In Kushner’s view, every country should retain control over its own security and participation in alliances.Kushner wrote that Russia, Ukraine, and the United States would hold their first trilateral talks since February in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11. He said the United States planned to “consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines.”The war in photos: The aftermath of a strike outside KyivOvernight on November 4–5, Russian forces attacked logistics infrastructure in the Kyiv region with drones. A fire broke out in the Bucha district. One person was injured.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.