Ukrainians on social media applauded First Lady Melania Trump this week after President Donald Trump credited her with regularly updating him on Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, leading him to take a tougher stance on Moscow.
Trump made the remarks during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday, in which he announced an overhaul of his Ukraine policy in an attempt to end Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country. Trump announced that the White House would facilitate access to more American weapons for Ukraine, which he said European countries would pay for, and announced an ultimatum for strongman Vladimir Putin: End the invasion in 50 days or countries that trade with Russia will face a 100-percent secondary tariff when trading with America. Some of Russia’s most reliable trade partners – including China, India, and Turkey – could be significantly impacted by that policy.
In the announcement, Trump protested that Putin had routinely been polite and cooperative during phone calls with him, but failed to follow up on those calls with any meaningful action.
“I speak to [Putin a lot],” Trump explained. “I always hang up and say, ‘Well that was a nice phone call,’ and then missiles are launched into Kyiv. I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.’ And then she says, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”
A week before the announcement of the new policy, Trump complained that his government gets “a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin,” describing the Russian leader as “very nice all the time” but offering “meaningless” engagement.
First Lady Melania Trump during a signing ceremony for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2025. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty)
Trump’s nod to the first lady prompted an outpouring of affection from Ukrainians and Ukrainian-Americans online, who joked using memes that Melania Trump was working undercover for Ukraine, but more seriously credited her Slavic background for her understanding of Russia’s foreign policy. The Ukrainian state news site United24 Media published a story narrating the first lady’s “experience growing up behind the Iron Curtain” in modern-day Slovenia, the former Yugoslavia, and public “admiration for Ronald Reagan.” Ukrainian groups in America published statements thanking the first lady.
The U.K. Guardian documented another Ukrainian outlet, Business, reporting on “a lot of love on social media” for the American first lady after the White House meeting with Rutte. Some of the social media messages included animations showing Ukrainian cartoon soldiers adding Melania to their ranks, while others joked she was a special agent. One social media user suggested nominating Melania Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Some users described the first lady as a “hero” following her comments.
Speaking to the New York Post, Ukrainians in Kyiv praised the first lady and commented on a kinship with her as an Eastern European.
“She is against war. And she does not want the Slavs to die. And she wants to help somehow,” one civilian speaking to the Post, Sergei Taruta, was quoted as saying. “I think she understands more because she is one of ours, coming from a Slavic country.”
While the first lady does not often comment on international politics, she used her social media platforms in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion to support Ukrainians unequivocally. In late February 2022, days after Putin’s “special operation” began, she published a statement on her Twitter account calling the invasion “heartbreaking and horrific,” encouraging followers to donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Trump also marked International Women’s Day that year with a special message for Ukrainian women.
“Seeing the Ukrainian women & children suffering is heartbreaking,” she wrote. “I call upon all women worldwide to support the Ukrainians on this International Women’s Day.”
Reporters asked President Trump to elaborate on his wife’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine and her influence on his policies on Tuesday. Trump credited his wife with being “very smart” and relatable to him.
“She’s very smart. She’s very neutral. She’s sort of like me — she’d like to see people stop dying,” the president said.
President Trump has expressed growing exasperation with the Russian government in the past month, after making resolving the ongoing invasion a priority for his administration.
“You know, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. But he’ll talk so beautifully, and then he’ll bomb people at night. We don’t like that,” Trump explained last week.
Rutte, the NATO leader, offered a more detailed anecdote of how Moscow had frustrated Ukraine and its allies. During a first round of direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, Rutte said, Putin sent a historian to ramble interminably about history rather than discuss the situation on the ground today.
“He [Putin] didn’t send serious people to the negotiation … I remember I was myself in Turkey for NATO business in May and we put pressure on the Ukrainians to send a senior team to Istanbul, and they did,” Rutte recalled. “But then the Russians came up with this historian explaining the history of Russia since 1250.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here
