August 18, 2025
DIANE FRANCIS
Many news stories have been written about the failed Trump-Putin Summit on August 15, and more will be written about what is next. But to date, the most compelling words were contained in a private letter by First Lady Melania Trump, which she asked her husband to give to Putin. In it, according to reports, she condemned Russia’s invasion and humanitarian abuses and asked for Russia to return thousands of abducted Ukrainian children. Estimates are that 35,000 have been stolen, and tens of thousands are missing. These atrocities led the International Criminal Court in 2023 to issue an arrest warrant for Putin to face war crimes. Mrs. Trump knows that Putin is to blame — a latter-day Hitler who kills and steals and brainwashes children — and yet her husband gives him red carpet treatment. Fortunately, her fellow Europeans are not fooled and will flank Trump on August 18 in Washington to discuss next steps with Zelensky. But so far, it’s been a diplomatic debacle as one Fox News anchor described: “Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say, and got his photo next to the president and then left.”
Once more, Americans are condemned to repeat the history that most of them, including their Presidents, never bothered to study. It wasn’t long ago that Germany’s Hitler tried to conquer Europe and the world. There are plenty of reruns on Netflix that show how he attacked civilians, bombed cities, murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, and dissidents in concentration camps, then abducted 200,000 ethnic Polish children who were sent to work camps, adopted by German families, or sent to camps run by the SS (Schutzstaffel or elite Nazi guards). Today’s newscasts are similar because Putin’s template is the same as Hitler’s.
Putin intends to re-establish the Soviet empire, murder rivals, and subjugate other nationalities – a goal which was blatantly broadcast when his foreign minister wore to the summit a sweatshirt emblazoned with the Cyrillic letters “CCCP”. This stands for the evil empire, otherwise known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was dismantled in 1991.
Putin may be described as the leader of a big country, but he’s another megalomaniac who announced before invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022, that he intended to destroy the Ukrainian nation and its people, language, and culture. He has since bombed neighborhoods, schools, cultural centers, hospitals, churches, cities, infrastructure, and, like the Nazis, seized and indoctrinated untold numbers of Ukrainian children. The extent of these war crimes is not truly known. The Council of Europe research claims that Russia “has abducted at least 20,000 Ukrainian children,” and only 1,400 children have been found and returned. Besides abductions, the Council noted that 1.6 million Ukrainian children living in occupied territories are subjected to indoctrination and forced to Russify or join the military.
There is also intentional child abuse, according to the Council: “The Russian Federation has not only been reckless regarding harm caused to children as the collateral damage of war. It is hurting children on purpose. Children are being killed and stolen. This war of aggression has
revealed a shockingly strategic and systematic mistreatment of children. Russia aims to destroy Ukraine’s identity and future”. A recent report in The New York Post claims 35,000 have been abducted and placed into indoctrination programs from the occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson – regions that Moscow has illegally annexed and intends to capture fully. Many were orphans, taken from existing homes, or were stolen from the battlefield after their parents were murdered. Some were obtained after their parents were tricked into sending them on school trips to Crimea to escape the fighting. They never returned, and their fate remains unknown.
Russia has even launched an adoption database where kidnapped Ukrainian children are sorted by age, eye color, and number of siblings, according to the NGO seeking to return Kyiv’s stolen children. An interview with an official also detailed the situation. “Mykola Kuleba, CEO of the Save Ukraine organization, raised the alarm over the Russian database on Wednesday, warning that the Kremlin is effectively trafficking the 294 children on the site. These children are presented like products in an e-commerce store, sortable by age, gender, eye and hair color, health status, and even personality traits.”
By the way, Trump isn’t the only President that Putin or Russia has hoodwinked. In 1994, Former President Bill Clinton pressured Ukraine into handing over its nuclear arsenal to Russia’s rotten regime, then promised American protection from invasion, which it failed to provide. In 2014, former President Barack Obama and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel did virtually nothing after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimea and eastern regions. Then in 2021, a summit was held between Putin and former President Joe Biden, who described it as “good and positive”. But that meeting occurred just months after Biden wrongly lifted pipeline sanctions against Russia, and months before Putin’s full-scale 2022 invasion. Now in 2025, after three years of war, the American President’s wife has Putin’s “number”, but the Commander in Chief does not.
Even the Trump-friendly Wall Street Journal drubbed the summit and reminded Trump about his pledges. “There was nothing but niceties and a Putin stonewall. Mr. Trump will have to decide whether to follow through on the red lines he has drawn. On Wednesday, he had promised `very severe consequences’ if Mr. Putin didn’t agree to end the war.” What about sanctions on China, Turkey, and others for buying Russian oil? it asked. Or will Trump roll over and agree to another pointless summit?
So far, so bad. Trump flubbed, is out of his depth, is no judge of character, and his migration to a “peace plan” after two failed “ceasefire” deadlines will open the door to more, not less, killing and abducting. That is why European leaders will be in Washington on August 18 for the next summit between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Europeans are steeped in the history of Russia and tyrants, and currently face another existential threat. Britain’s hawkish Swarmer and France’s Macron have charmed and impressed Trump; Germany’s Friedrich Merz is strong, committed, and will write the biggest checks; and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni suggested a loophole that will allow Europe to provide Ukraine with NATO collective defense protection by forming a non-NATO coalition of boots-on-the-ground security forces to protect what’s left of Ukraine after the shooting stops.
Their intervention is critical, especially after Trump foolishly agreed that Putin could get the rest of Donetsk. The Europeans have made sure that this is not on the table for three reasons: Russia never conquered it, it is resource-rich, and its 380,000 residents live in four heavily fortified cities known as the “Fortress Belt” that protect access to the rest of Ukraine. Their demolition would guarantee another invasion.
But first and foremost, there must be European security forces to protect Ukraine; Ukraine cannot concede unconquered land; and the so-called Fortress Belt in Donetsk must be shored up. Additionally, POWs must be exchanged, captive Ukrainians released, and stolen children immediately returned. However, The Wall Street Journal pointed out: “For guarantees to have a real deterrent effect, they would have to include foreign troops in Ukraine. Kyiv would need the ability to build up its military and arms industry. The US would have to provide intelligence and air power to back up the ground forces. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump or Mr. Putin would agree to any of this, and without the U.S. playing a significant role, European leaders may not be willing to deploy troops.”
Melania is correct for weighing in morally. She’s no foreign policy wonk, but she’s European, Slavic, and from Slovenia, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Her homeland has strongly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and firmly supported Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. Slovenia is a member of the EU and NATO. She’s also a mother and a human being who is outraged by the crimes of this latter-day Hitler. Her letter to Putin wasn’t her first foreign policy intervention. In July, Trump admitted in an interview, “I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. I think we’re finished.’ And she said, ‘Oh really? He just bombed another nursing home.’”
Melania’s letter should be published globally. And Putin must be stopped.