First Lady Melania Trump stepped into the spotlight on Thursday, just two days after voters delivered a crushing rebuke to her husband in the midterm elections.
The First Lady hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House to celebrate the six-day truce she brokered in the war-ravaged city of Oleshky.
The event marked the next step in a push for peace at the hands of the First Lady.
'Together we can create something more enduring than a temporary ceasefire,' Trump said.
Nearly 800 people were evacuated during the six-day pause, which ran from October 27 to November 1, according to the First Lady.
Thursday's event celebrates the completed humanitarian operation but does not mark an ongoing truce.
On October 23, her office announced that she had brokered a localized ceasefire to help the imperiled city of Oleshky.
Oleshky was captured by Russian forces on the first day of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, the city's resources have dwindled, with the Associated Press reporting that food and medical supplies have been scarce for months.
Melania Trump delivers remarks on a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine
Melania's moment of diplomatic triumph comes as the president was still reeling from punishing midterm election results
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and head of the negotiating team for the implementation of the mission on the Ukrainian side Dmytro Lubinets (center) poses with Ukrainian citizens evacuated from the Russian-occupied Oleshky
Residents lack electricity, heat and running water.
Hundreds were killed when the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion in June 2023, which the AP determined was likely caused by the Russian military.
The White House estimated that about 90 percent of the city was flooded.
The plight of the people of Oleshky came to the First Lady's attention while she was attending the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The First Lady had traveled to New York to host a Fostering the Future Together event, her initiative that aims to empower and safeguard children from emerging technology.
The First Lady, who was born in Slovenia, had previously worked to reunify Ukrainian children with their parents who were taken by the Russians.
She notably wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin imploring him to think about the children amid the war - which has stretched nearly five years.
President Donald Trump hand delivered the First Lady's letter to Putin when they met last August in Anchorage, Alaska.
So far, she's been responsible for reuniting 34 children with their families.
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