Zelensky Awards Melania Trump Ukraine's Top Honour for Women
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded US First Lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, which is Ukraine's highest award for women. Reuters The presidential decree cited her "significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine," and also her humanitarian work concerning Ukrainian children affected by the war.
The award follows the end of a ceasefire, a temporary halt in fighting, in Ukraine's southern Kherson region. That truce allowed the evacuation of several hundred people from Oleshky, a city that Russia occupies. RFERL The ceasefire in and around the city lasted six days.
The White House said Melania Trump had "independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire." Both the Russian and Ukrainian sides have thanked her for brokering the Oleshky ceasefire.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations are due to meet at the White House on Thursday, November 5, at her invitation. BBC News Ukraine's delegation will include Dmytro Lubinets, the country's human rights ombudsman, and Davyd Arakhamia, a member of parliament who heads Zelensky's party there and was previously part of the Ukrainian negotiating team in peace talks with Russia. Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, travelled together into Oleshky last week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation will be made up of Lantratova and Kirill Dmitriev. Melania Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks on the Oleshky ceasefire at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (16:00 GMT) on Thursday, according to the White House website.
Separately, US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that Russian, Ukrainian and American representatives are to meet in Abu Dhabi next week. He described it as the first trilateral, or three-party, meeting since February, focused on postwar security agreements and de-escalation, meaning steps to reduce hostilities.
In 2025, Melania Trump said an "open channel of communication" had been established with Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow Ukrainian children displaced by the war to be reunited with their families.
