Trump, EU's von der Leyen discuss plight of children in war

19/8/2025 12:19

U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday they spoke about missing children due to conflict as Trump hosted European and NATO leaders in Washington to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine.



Melania Trump raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday when Trump met Putin at a summit in Alaska.



Trump and the European leader "have been discussing the massive Worldwide problem of missing children," the U.S. president said on social media late on Monday, without mentioning any particular country in his post. "This is, likewise, a big subject with my wife, Melania."



Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide. Moscow has previously said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.



The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia has inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.