Melania Trump meets with Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House
November 5, 2026, 4:45 pm
Source: Meduza
U.S. first lady Melania Trump met with representatives of Russia and Ukraine at the White House.
Ombudsman Yana Lantratova and presidential special envoy Kirill Dmitriev represented Russia at the meeting. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and Davyd Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, represented Ukraine.
Officials announced the meeting after a humanitarian operation in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, during which Lantratova and Lubinets helped evacuate several hundred people. Both sides said Melania Trump played the key mediating role in organizing the mission.
A temporary ceasefire was declared for the duration of the humanitarian operation and held for several days, marking the first such pause since the full-scale war in Ukraine began.
Member of the State Duma of Russia who voted in favour of Federal Law No. 75577-8 “On the ratification of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the Russian Federation and the Luhansk People’s Republic” and/or Federal Law No. 75578-8 “On the ratification of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the Russian Federation and the Donetsk People’s Republic”. In so doing, the member endorsed President Putin’s decision to recognise the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic as independent states, thereby providing support for policies and/or actions which destabilise Ukraine and/or undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine. The trust services sanctions were imposed on 21/03/2023.
Yana Lantratova, suspected in Ukraine of involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied Kherson region, has become the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, according to the decision by the State Duma on May 14, 2026.
Russia is using Ukraine’s children to win its occupation – and the wider war
Published: October 5, 2026 3.27pm BST
A year or so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the city of Murmansk in Russia’s Arctic north-west marked its annual regional day with a celebration for children. Alongside the sons and daughters of Russian soldiers stood children taken from the occupied Prymorskyi district of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukraine’s authorities have verified 20,651 cases of children deported or forcibly displaced to Russia and Belarus since 2022. Some estimates, including figures shared by Russian officials themselves, run as high as 744,000. As of September 2026, just 2,644 Ukrainian children have been returned.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, in March 2023 for their roles in this campaign.
But the Where Are Our People? project, which I work alongside, has identified at least 47 Russian and Belarusian individuals directly involved in the deportations. These people range from regional governors to business executives. Only some of them are under western sanctions.
Born on 25 October 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights
in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.
Accused LastName
Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova
Accused FirstName
Maria
Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
Inessa hugs her son Vitaly after the bus delivering him and more than a dozen other children back from Russian-held territory arrived in Kyiv on March 22, 2023. Photo: SERGEI CHUZAVKOV / AFP via Getty Images
US unveils sanctions on ICC in move court condemns as ‘assault on rule of law’
Image caption,The ICC said it would not be “deterred” by the sanctions
By Tom Bateman, State department correspondent, Anna Holligan, Reporting from in The Hague, and Florence Freeman
Published9 October 2026
The Trump administration has unveiled sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a significant acceleration of its attempt to “dismantle” what it sees as a “rogue” institution.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the measures – which include a ban on US entities making transactions with the ICC – were intended to “defend US sovereignty” and accused the court of seeking to prosecute Americans.
The ICC said the measures were an assault on the rule of law and the foundations of the international legal order.
The announcement came just hours after former ICC judge Navi Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
The US has already sanctioned 17 of the ICC’s judges and officials, but this move sanctions the court itself as an institution and is intended to collapse its ability to operate financially.
However, the US has provided a six month grace period before some of these latest sanctions kick in, meaning member states can keep paying for its operations – a move Washington says is to allow countries time to negotiate a “solution to address” US concerns.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the US decision “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice, of which the ICC is a key pillar”.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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