Last month, some of the remaining Oleshky residents told the BBC harrowing accounts of how they were surviving in the city that was being constantly shelled and cut off from food and water.

They said that children remaining in wider Oleshky were suffering from malnutrition, a lack of medical services and were “degrading” without access to education.

Many also told the BBC there was only one hospital partially operational, opening a few days a week to perform critical amputations.

The local population was living under a “full blockade” by Russian forces, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Ukraine says it has attempted to deliver supplies to the area but has not had success in recent months.

The Kremlin in September acknowledged that Oleshky was facing “a critical situation” and “problems with supplies of food and medicine”, but added that “Russia’s military was working to resolve them” and blamed Kyiv.

Oleshky is trapped between the Dnipro River, which separates it from Ukrainian positions, and Russian forces.

The city was home to 24,000 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now Ukraine estimates that some 6,000 people remain in the city and its surrounding areas, including 200 children.

While the US first lady is relatively lower profile than some of her predecessors – and only occasionally seen at White House events – she has become involved in addressing humanitarian issues stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war.

In August 2025, Melania Trump penned a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling him it was “time to protect children and future generations worldwide”.

Although she did not mention Ukraine by name, just days later at the White House Zelensky handed over a letter from his wife Olena, thanking her for her efforts on children.

In a rare public appearance in October the same year, the US first lady said that Putin had answered directly in writing and that her representatives were working with the Russian president’s team to repatriate Ukrainian children from Russia and vice versa.

Some 34 children have reportedly been returned since 2025, including five this July.

According to US President Donald Trump, his wife has also privately expressed scepticism about Putin and his desire to achieve peace.

“I’d get home, I’d say, ‘First lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished’,” Trump said in July last year.

“And then I’ll turn on the television, or she’ll say to me one time, ‘Wow, that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home’.”