While the news media in the United States continues its myopic obsession with politics, it has missed an important humanitarian story, where the First Lady has almost single-handedly liberated an entire city in Ukraine, relieved extreme suffering and ensured the safety and well-being of thousands of people.
In the Russian-occupied territory of Kherson, the city of Oleshky has been without food, medicine and drinking water for months. Hearing of the plight of these people, Mrs. Trump independently initiated and negotiated with two warring nations a ceasefire in order to get aid to the citizens and to arrange evacuations for those who wanted to be relocated.
“This achievement marks an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American First Lady,” said the White House.
Indeed, and on Wednesday Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the First Lady the highest honor for women, the Order of Princess Olga, for "significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine," according to the presidential decree.
On Thursday, Mrs. Trump hosted representatives from both Russia and Ukraine at the White House to further discuss the effort. The delegation included Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and MP Davyd Arakhamia, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev and his Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova.
Human rights?
All the goodwill gestures by Ms. Lantratova and Mr. Dmitriev can’t explain away how this humanitarian crisis occurred in the first place.
Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since the first day of the invasion in 2022. An estimated 1,700–2,000 civilians were trapped in the city, including around 50 children. Most are elderly, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.
Residents faced severe shortages of food and medicine, with no access to drinking water, electricity, gas, or heating. The last regular road deliveries of food took place in May 2026. Medical and sanitary conditions had deteriorated dramatically. Russia provided no humanitarian relief to the people and refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross or United Nations observers to enter, despite multiple attempts.
Russian forces blocked civilians from leaving and prevented humanitarian aid for those who were trapped. Swarming drones, heavily mined roads, and destroyed infrastructure made it extremely dangerous for residents to leave. According to The New York Times, people who managed to escape the city described residents being used as human shields.
During the evacuation, two people were killed while clearing roads for the humanitarian convoy and Russia continued to hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in other areas, leading hundreds of thousands without electricity.
President Putin’s ruthless tactics of targeting civilian populations – schools, churches, and hospitals have been a deliberate attempt to demoralize and destroy Ukrainian families and communities.
Putin has unlawfully kidnapped an estimated 20,000 children from occupied territories in a systematic scheme of forced adoption, identity erasure, sexual exploitation, forced labor, and military indoctrination in what the United Nations has deemed human trafficking, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ms. Lantratova has been sanctioned by the U.S. for her direct involvement in the forced deportation and abduction of Ukrainian children. She had to receive a special waiver to attend the event on Wednesday.
A year ago, First Lady Melania Trump launched another humanitarian effort to rescue these Ukrainian children who have been abducted and smuggled into Russia, dealing directly with Kremlin officials.
Perhaps the First Lady can broker a lasting end to this war. Sadly, the media have ignored this story just as they have the rescue in Oleshky.
Ukrainian officials have welcomed the humanitarian relief but remain skeptical given Russia’s long history of violating humanitarian agreements.
In fact, Putin has committed numerous human rights violations including the widespread torture of prisoners, raping of women on the battlefield, violence against minorities and the killing of Christian leaders and journalists.
Only one media outlet sent journalists to Oleshky. Its presence provided valuable reporting and documentation of the event but is not a substitute for neutral humanitarian monitors: it does not have the same mandate, expertise, or access guarantees to protect civilians, verify consent, or enforce compliance with international humanitarian law. Moreover, American journalists also faced security risks in occupied Russia.
Peter Pomerantsev of The Reckoning Project, who has been studying Russian propaganda for years, warns in his analysis for the Kyiv Independent that residents of Oleshky, under the pressure of living on the brink of death, could become props for Russian propagandists.
While causing the disaster and with total disregard for the suffering of the people in Oleshky, Russia is more than happy to portray itself as the humanitarians who came to the rescue, but the world should know otherwise.
Too many lives have been lost and are suffering because of Putin’s thirst for power. I am praying for peace as the U.S. leads trilateral talks with both sides in Abu Dhabi next week.
The Honorable Ken Blackwell is the President of the Council for National Policy and a long-time conservative leader. He served as U.S. Ambassador to UN Human Rights Commission and as a member of the board of the International Republican Institute.
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