First lady Melania Trump faced a torrent of outrage after lavishing praise on a Kremlin official whose past has haunted Ukrainian families.
Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House on Thursday, where she thanked Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, saying her "dedication brings hope and dignity to those devastated by war," according to a video posted by journalist Aaron Rupar.
Ukraine's security service accused Lantratova in 2024 of helping deport children from occupied Kherson to Russia, the Ukrainian news outlet Babel reported.
The gathering followed a humanitarian ceasefire in the occupied city of Oleshky that the White House credited Melania with helping broker, the Associated Press noted.
BBC local radio correspondent Euan MacDonald laid out the international penalties and Ukrainian charges Lantratova faces, asking if Melania was seriously thanking Lantratova, "who is under international sanctions by the EU, US, UK, and other nations, and who has been charged in absentia in Ukraine for her alleged role in facilitating the unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia?"
"What a disgusting spectacle," MacDonald blasted. "Shame on America."
Nicolas Tenzer, a French foreign policy expert, similarly pointed out that Melania was "praising a person sanctioned by the EU, the UK, Ukraine...and the US for her active role in the deportation and forced russification of Ukrainian kids."
Former U.S. ambassador Luis Moreno echoed the ire, lamenting, "You know, all kidding aside. FLOTUS not only invited this war criminal who kidnaps Ukrainian children to Russia, into the White House, but she's honoring and praising her. Beyond disgusting."
Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego, turned his fire toward the Trump administration for cozying up to Moscow.
"This entire f— administration is trying to normalize relations with the war criminals who created the humanitarian disaster these two are now 'solving,'" Slantchev railed.
Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, a former International Space Station commander who now comments on politics, declared that "the Trump family and MAGA admiration of Russia and Putin is one of the most disgusting episodes in American history."