First lady Melania Trump says 8 children reunited with families after talks with Putin

US First Lady Melania Trump says 8 children have been reunited with their families after ongoing talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Melania Trump in August wrote a letter to Putin and had her husband hand-deliver it during his meeting with the Russian President in Alaska. Putin's invasion of Ukraine has resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so that they can be raised as Russian. The First Lady, speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, said that Putin responded to her letter and after that, they had established an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of those children. We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war, she said. The Associated Press documented the grabbing of Ukrainian children in 2022, after which the International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. A child's soul knows no borders, no flags. We must foster a future for our children which is rich with potential, security, and complete with free will. A world where dreams will be realized rather than faded by war. Much has unfolded since President Putin received my letter last August. He responded in writing, signaling a willingness to engage with me directly and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia. And since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of these children. For the past three months, both sides have participated in several back-channel meetings and calls, all in good faith. We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war. My representative has been working directly with President Putin's team to ensure the safe reunification of children with their families between Russia and Ukraine. In fact, eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours. Each child has lived in turmoil because of the war in Ukraine. Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting. The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including one young girl who has now been reunited from Ukraine to Russia. I have learned a lot about this matter during the past three months. Russia has demonstrated a willingness to disclose objective and detailed information reflective for the current situation. President Donald Trump criticized Spain for not meeting the military alliance's defense spending target of 5% of GDP, calling the country laggard. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly, Trump said. According to Associated Press in that same meeting between Trump and Finland's President Alexander Stubb, Trump was asked on the upcoming announcement on the Nobel Peace Prize saying, whatever they do is fine. The president, while sitting with his Finnish counterpart said, I don't know, about his chances of getting the prize, which will be awarded Friday morning. But he ticked off a list of conflicts where he said he has brokered peace and said, I didn't do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives. They'll have to do what they do, Trump said of the Nobel Committee. You have time and again said that one should not underestimate Mr. Trump's negotiating ability. Do you personally believe that Mr. Trump deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow? Well, I think that's probably a decision that comes from the Nobel Committee. And my take is that there are two key pieces that have to be solved in the big picture. One is in the Middle East, and we're seeing the results of that. And then the other one is between Russia and Ukraine. Great. And once those are solved, you know, and I don't see any impediments to it. This year? I think probably the best nomination would be coming from Zelensky and then the King of Jordan. Those would be two that would come. But I think you have to I mean, my experience with the Nobel Peace Prize comes from Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland. He got it in 2008 and he got it because he negotiated three peace agreements on three different continents. Namibia in Africa, Kosovo, Serbia and Europe, and then Aceh in Indonesia. And his message was always that when you do a peace agreement, the key is that it looks like an equal match, that the big guy doesn't win over the small guy and vice versa. But I have to say that the track record of the president of the United States in the past seven months, eight months is rather impressive. Mr. President, how do you rate your chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow? Well, look, I made seven deals and now it's eight. Solved the wars, one going 31 years, one going 34 years, one going 35 years, one going 10 years. I made seven deals. This would be number eight. You can imagine that a country like Finland was quite pleased with that because that means that all of the allies have to. But they'll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this. I didn't do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives. And that's the thing that bothers me so much about the Russia-Ukraine, 7,000 people are dying a week. Young soldiers, they're almost all soldiers of Ukraine and Russia. So in theory, it doesn't affect us, no, but it's a terrible thing. They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. We're going to work together very closely with Finland and with NATO. We have a very good relationship. As you know, I requested that they pay 5 percent, not 2 percent. And most people thought that was not going to happen. And it happened virtually unanimously. We had one laggard. It was Spain. Spain. You have to call them and find why are they a laggard. And they're doing well, too. You know, the funny thing, because of a lot of the things we've done, they're doing fine. They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly. Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to reset a record. We have both the president of Finland and we have the prime minister of Finland. And that's never I don't ever remember having a president and a prime minister. But that's a great honor. Thank you very much both for being here. And Alex, we've been friends for a long time and I've heard wonderful things about your prime minister also. And we have a big order coming up. We're buying icebreakers. We're building them together for the most part. We're doing four over there and seven over here. And we negotiated a pretty tough price, I think. But I said I assume you're going to do very well. But what you're doing is you're going to be teaching us about the icebreaker business. Very, very strong. We only have one icebreaker in all of that millions and millions of acres. We only have one icebreaker. And other countries have more than we do. And we were buying the finest icebreakers in the world. And Finland is known for making them. They sort of have almost a monopoly on icebreakers, if you think about it. Nobody makes them like Finland. I've heard that for a long time. So we're going to have a total of 11. And it's it's been really an honor working on it. It was very important. And we were making them, but we didn't make them right. By the time we finish, we're going to make them maybe better than you, but at least as well. But probably not better, but at least as well. So I appreciate both of you being here. It's an honor to have both of you really tremendous reputations. And it's a great country. Thank you, Mr. President. I mean, I remember our first conversation just after you had been elected in November. The first thing you mentioned was icebreakers. And we're happy to announce that we're basically building 11 icebreakers together, four of them in Finland, in joint endeavors, and then seven of them here. And I think the reason that we've landed in Finland is that 60 percent of the world's icebreakers are built in Finland. Eighty percent are designed. We've been building them for over 100 years. And speaking of price and time, I think we're the country that can provide them half the price and half the time that others have it. And I think this is a huge strategic decision by the president as well, because we all know that the Arctic is important strategically, militarily, and in terms of the economy as well. And now we can work on this together.