The international People First campaign published an open letter on November 4 asking US First Lady Melania Trump to help secure the release of Ukrainian civilian women detained in Russia. Human Rights Watch, a member of the coalition, published the appeal.
The signatories cite an incomplete list of nearly 300 detained women compiled by the Center for Civil Liberties and the Ukrainian Military Archive. As the letter stresses, the total number of Ukrainian civilian women held in Russia is unknown.
The authors describe cases in which women have allegedly been held without contact with their families, subjected to torture or other mistreatment, and denied adequate medical care. They call for access to medical treatment and relatives, protection from abuse and the women's release to become a priority in any potential US-mediated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
The coalition links its appeal to humanitarian discussions about evacuating civilians from Russian-occupied Oleshky in Ukraine's Kherson region. The signatories refer to reports of Melania Trump's role in those contacts and suggest drawing on that experience to address the issue of civilian detainees.