U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters today that he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Asked about the meeting, all he would say, as reported by AP, is that the Russia-Ukraine war was very close to being settled: “It’s going to be an agreement. It’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine... I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It’s going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone’s going to be thrilled.”
Dmitriev was in Washington as part of First Lady Melania Trump’s event recognizing the collaboration of the Russian and Ukrainian human rights ombudsmen in ending Ukraine’s isolation of the town of Oleshky-Aleshki on the Russian-held left bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson Region. He presented Melania with a drawing by an 11-year-old Aleshki girl who was able to move with her family to a safe Russian town. Melania Trump gave the respective delegation heads her personal letters to President Vladimir Putin and to Volodymyr Zelensky. Later in the day Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights announced that, in line with Russia’s continuing collaboration with Melania Trump’s staff on humanitarian issues and family reunifications, nine Ukrainian children currently living in Russia would be reunited with family members in Ukraine this month.
Asked about a meeting with a similar meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, Trump said that there was not one. From Kiev, ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets was joined in the delegation by David Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People (Volodymyr Zelensky’s party) caucus in the Ukrainian parliament.
