Melania Trump snubbed Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska's repeated pleas for a formal meeting as she courted the support of other first spouses on Tuesday.

The US first lady welcomed world leaders' spouses on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly as she revealed her new initiative, "Fostering the Future Together".

Melania declared she hoped the first spouses would join her new coalition, centred on children's wellbeing and artificial intelligence safety. The news emerges as Trump goes on unhinged rant about broken escalators and empty words in wild UN speech.

The first lady spoke for merely four minutes at the reception, held in a gilded ballroom adorned with fresh flowers and tiered displays of macarons and finger sandwiches.

"As children, we all played marbles, flew paper airplanes and ran with the string in our hand, watching our kites lift off," she said, reports the Mirror US.

"Great minds have turned marbles into microchips, paper airplanes into drones and kites into satellites," Melania added.

She said the coalition's mission is "to ensure that every child can flourish in the digital era."

Dozens of first ladies, a few first gentlemen and at least one queen, were amongst the crowd.

Melania urged them to spearhead programmes in their own countries and announced the inaugural meeting will be hosted at the White House in the first quarter of 2026. "The moment is now. Please join me to foster the future together. Work with me to empower children to achieve new heights across our planet," she said.

As Melania urged fellow first spouses to unite with her in shielding children from dangerous technology, one figure was desperately trying to catch her eye.

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, spouse of President Volodymyr Zelensky, was spotted near the front of the audience listening to Melania, who promptly departed the room after her brief comments as the reception carried on.

Several minutes afterwards, Zelenska was observed standing silently beside a lift as Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club echoed through the speakers, CNN reports.

Melania was anticipated to acknowledge Zelenska after Tuesday's gathering.

Ukraine's first lady has consistently campaigned for an official encounter with Melania in the hope of demonstrating a mutual commitment to liberating more than 20,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia during the conflict.

However, Zelenska's appeals for a formal meeting were rejected, according to a senior adviser to the first lady, who explained Melania would merely offer a casual greeting out of courtesy.

"The truth is, Mrs. Zelenska has reached out several times to set up a meeting, but there's no bilateral meeting. There's nothing formal," Beckman told Fox News' Fox and Friends.

"As our First Lady is very polite, she's going to say hello today, but there's no sit-down, substantive conversation set; no meeting set," he added. Zelenska had hoped to make a personal appeal to Melania, who has focused her platform during her husband's second term on the well-being of children.

Earlier in the day, Zelenska had warned that, at the current rate, it would take 50 years to return all of the Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia.

"These children cannot await a lifetime," she said, revealing that 1,625 children have been returned to Ukraine so far.

"Behind every name are months of searching, negotiations and risk," Zelenska added.

Initially, Melania had indicated that she was sympathetic to Zelenska's plight.

In August, the first lady penned a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, pleading with him to negotiate a peace deal for the sake of innocent children.

She told the Russian leader that he could "singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter."

Donald Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their Alaska summit.

When Zelensky visited the US president days later, he handed over a letter for Melania from Zelenska.

Zelensky said the letter was to thank Melania for raising awareness about the Ukrainian children abducted since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.