Eight children 'displaced' by war in Ukraine have been reunited with families, Melania Trump says

Melania Trump has said eight children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war have been reunited with their families following ongoing talks with Vladimir Putin.

In August, the First Lady wrote a letter to the Russian president, and her husband hand-delivered it during his meeting with Putin in Alaska in August. The invasion of Ukraine has seen thousands of children being taken out of their country by Russia.

In June, the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University estimated that more than 35,000 had been taken to over 100 locations in Russia and occupied territories. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Mrs Trump said that Putin responded to her letter and that they have established an "open channel of communication" regarding the welfare of those children.

She said: "We have agreed to co-operate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war." In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. At the time, the Kremlin said that Russia found the questions raised by the ICC "outrageous and unacceptable".

They added the warrants are "null and void" as Russia does not recognise the ICC and has not signed up to the Rome Statutes - the treaty underpinning the world's permanent war crimes tribunal. It comes as US President Donald Trump's efforts to end Russia's war on Ukraine have stalled, despite meeting with Mr Putin in Alaska earlier this year.

Read more on the war in Ukraine:Blackouts and water outages as hundreds of drones target Ukraine's energyZelenskyy's UN speech was a warning - he knows Trump can turn on a dimeWhy does Trump think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize? Since the summit in August, Mr Trump has said the US was prepared to impose energy sanctions against Russia - but only if all NATO countries stop buying Russian oil and implement similar measures. Also on Friday, Mr Putin warned that if the US president agrees to provide Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, Russia will respond by boosting its air defences..