How Melania Trump Became a Dark Horse Diplomat on Ukraine

Both Moscow and Kyiv say Mrs. Trump's team was the driving force behind an evacuation of a besieged city. It was also in their interest to deliver her a humanitarian win.

After nearly five years of war, Russia and Ukraine now agree on at least one thing: They should keep Melania Trump happy.

Last month, Mrs. Trump, the first lady, emerged as a dark horse diplomat when she announced a local cease-fire that would allow for the evacuation of hundreds of people from the frontline Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, which was facing a starvation crisis.

The six-day truce, the first of its kind since Russia's all-out invasion in 2022, was the product of an unconventional foreign policy intervention by an American first lady. It was all the more remarkable for a presidential spouse who has at times disappeared from the public eye and rarely comments on international affairs.

And it was in keeping with her recent efforts to construct an image as a humanitarian, including through her association with a campaign to return children from Russia to Ukraine.

Mrs. Trump's exact role in negotiating the cease-fire remains murky. On Thursday, she was expected to discuss her efforts publicly for the first time at a meeting in Washington with a small delegation of Russian and Ukrainian representatives who helped execute the evacuation. The first lady's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Officials from Russia and Ukraine have insisted that she and her team, including her longtime gatekeeper, Marc Beckman, spent weeks in talks with both sides and were pivotal to the final agreement. Ukraine had publicly called for urgent aid to be sent to the city and had sought help from various groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, when the first lady intervened.

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