Eight years ago, Melania Trump caused uproar when she was photographed travelling to a detention centre for migrant children separated from their parents, wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words: “I really don’t care, do you?”The $39 (£29) Zara jacket was worlds away from the blandly expensive Davos-style outfits that Melania usually dressed in. It was feasted on as evidence that beneath the first lady’s conspicuously icy exterior was a core that was icier still.

Melania caused uproar for wearing a $39 jacket emblazoned with “I really don’t care, do you?” during a trip to a migrant child detention centre Today, however, Melania is garnering praise from across political divides for helping to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in Oleshky. The Russian-occupied city, which sits just south of the Dnipro River, was invaded by Putin’s army in 2022, but has since been fought over by both sides, leaving the 1,700 or so residents still stranded with barely any electricity, food or water.

Locals who have managed to escape the city reported that bodies were being eaten by stray dogs because Russian forces have forbidden burials. The last official food delivery was in May. One family of three who recently left the city reported that they had survived on one cup of rice or buckwheat between them per day, as well as plants, grass and whatever else they could scavenge.

Thanks to the ceasefire – which came into effect at 1am on Oct 27, and is expected to last until Sunday – preparations are being made to evacuate citizens still trapped. “The situation in Oleshky is dire,” the first lady said in a statement released by her office. “It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”It is not the first time Melania has intervened on Ukrainians’ behalf. Shortly after the full-scale invasion began in 2022, she said on social media that it was “heartbreaking and horrific to see innocent people suffering”.

Last year, she wrote Vladimir Putin a letter urging him – albeit in almost indecipherable Miss World language – to think of the children embroiled in the war. She has since worked to reunite several children separated by the war from their families, according to the White House.

THE CEASEFIRE HAS COMMENCED The ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect at 4:00am Moscow time on October 27, 2026.

Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. The ceasefire's geographic area has expanded beyond Oleshky, within the Kherson Region, to provide safe passage for the humanitarian convoys.

General Valery Gerasimov, Joint Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces has confirmed.

While her husband has, in recent weeks, shown that his sympathies now lie with Putin, Melania has long offered a different perspective. Trump recalled last year that he would tell Melania that he’d had yet another pleasant conversation with Putin, only for her to reply: “Really? Another city was just hit.”This apparent willingness to defend Ukraine’s interests won her praise in Ukraine, and Wags on social media nicknamed her “Agent Melania Trumpenko”.

In light of her latest intervention, some are even speculating that, should Melania continue to act as peacemaker in Ukraine, she could pip Trump to the Nobel Peace Prize that he has long coveted.

In her first term, Melania’s official portrait featured a bouncy blow-dry and an almost airbrushed-looking finish“The second time round, it’s a black-and-white photo, she’s dressed in more business-like attire, and she has a more serious expression and body language,” notes Jellison. Melania is also, Jellison points out, just 56, while Trump is 80, so she may be strategising for the years ahead.

“Obviously, there is the potential that she may have a long period of time where she is an independent actor, in widowhood, and will want to have a definite public image apart from [Trump].”

In her second term, Melania’s official portrait aims to convey an impression of substance Mary Jordan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote a bestselling biography of Melania, The Art of Her Deal, says her involvement in the ceasefire should be interpreted with a degree of scepticism. Of course, it is unequivocally a good thing that she has helped to pause hostilities in the city, Jordan stresses. “The most important thing is that there is a ceasefire – it’s catastrophic what’s happened in Oleshky. People are trapped and hungry. So any part she played in this is a good thing.”

Melania does genuinely care about the plight of Ukrainians, not least because she was born and raised in the Eastern European country of Slovenia. “She is aware, and she has shown she understands, how people are suffering [in Ukraine].”Yet we know, Jordan adds, that there were other actors involved in securing the ceasefire – not least the Pope, who has just been treated for lung cancer. Shortly after Melania’s office released her statement, the Vatican published its own version of events in its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. That article stressed that the Pope had spoken to both Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, urging them to pause fighting to save trapped civilians.

There is no mention of the Pope in Melania’s statement, however. The intervention, Jordan notes, is coming at a very sensitive time for Trump – just before the US midterm elections. “Melania is saying that, without a doubt, this couldn’t have happened without me. But we know that Pope Leo called Putin, that he’s been involved with it, as have other European leaders, who have been pounding this,” says Jordan.

’In widowhood, [Melania] will want to have a definite public image apart from [Trump],’ says Mary Jordan, who wrote a biography on the first lady Rather than claiming total credit for the pause in hostilities, Jordan says, Melania could easily have acknowledged others’ role in it. “The way her statement is worded reeks of politics, because she seems to be going out of her way to take credit,” she adds.

With many Americans disillusioned with Trump and uncomfortable with his veneration of Putin, “the timing of [Melania’s intervention], and the wording of her statement seem very political”, says Jordan. “It’s a bad look. The sick Pope is doing his bit, but here we have the first lady saying: ‘Nope, nope, without me this wouldn’t have been possible!’”Jordan’s reporting has led her to suspect that Melania’s statement about the ceasefire – though released by her office – was, in fact, written “in co-ordination with the West Wing, with her husband and his staff”. Its hyperbolic tone, she notes, is typical of the kind of language Trump uses.

Still, though the timing of Melania’s intervention may be raising eyebrows, some in Ukraine believe the ceasefire could be a first step towards peace in the region. Oleksiy Honcharenko, the Ukrainian MP for the Odesa region, tells The Telegraph that, in his view, the ceasefire is an example of how a broader peace might be established.

“It is very small and very isolated, but it is very important,” he says. Honcharenko has argued – deeply controversially in Ukraine, where many are sceptical that Putin has any intention of abandoning his war – that his country should seek specific, limited areas of compromise with Russia, bit by bit, until hostilities are confined to the Donbas region.

“I think Oleshky is a perfect example [of this plan],” he says. “But the very important thing is that, after Oleshky, we have something else – to expand on it.”

An insight into their dynamic came earlier this month, when Trump signed an executive order with Melania by his side. After praising his own signature (“Oh, that’s a good one!”), he passed the executive order to Melania to sign, too. “I don’t know if her signature means anything,” he joked, to the laughter of those watching. “Yours is the most important,” Melania quietly agreed.