ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russia freed detained American Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday as President Vladimir Putin hosted U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff for talks on new ideas for ending the war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Putin told Witkoff that Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher, was at the airport waiting to fly back to the United States with him, Reuters reported. Witkoff thanked Putin for the goodwill gesture.
Trump said on Tuesday that he had raised the idea of freeing Hubbard with Putin. Hubbard was first detained in April 2022 and was later sentenced to six years and 10 months on mercenary charges he denies, charges whose veracity his family and his U.S.-based lawyer question, according to Reuters.
The meeting at the Constantine Palace was the ninth time Witkoff has met Putin in person. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special investment envoy, was also present, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to Reuters.
Witkoff said in video of the meeting published by CNN:
“I think there’s some degree of momentum, and I hope that this today can be another step forward in the peace process and discussing how we resolve the Ukrainian conflict”
Witkoff flew to Russia on Wednesday morning after talks in Oslo on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leaders of Norway and Finland, and representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the European Union and NATO.
A U.S. official said Ukraine brought new ideas and proposals to the Oslo talks, which made “meaningful progress” toward a coordinated approach to engaging with Russia, Reuters reported. The official said the talks covered security guarantees for Ukraine, a post-war economic plan and a broader European security architecture, and that Witkoff would aim to “create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Witkoff’s meeting with Zelenskyy was positive. “He will now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side, and let’s see if we can make some progress,” Rubio said, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy said he hoped to discuss key issues on how to end the war during a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump, Reuters reported. The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would need to be painstakingly prepared in advance by aides, and that much of the legwork for an overall agreement would need to be in place first.
Trump remains frustrated with Zelenskyy, whom he has repeatedly rebuked. “He’s going to have to want to make a deal, because I don’t think his people are going to stand for it any longer,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
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