Russia frees retired American teacher as Trump envoy meets with Putin

Russia has released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two countries as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal to end Moscow’s war. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff lauded President Vladimir Putin for the release of Hubbard as he held peace talks with the Russian leader early Wednesday in St. Petersburg. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” Witkoff said. The U.S. has courted the Kremlin for weeks, and the release of Hubbard — a Michigan native detained in Ukraine in 2022 — will give President Donald Trump a victory to tout after backlash at home and abroad for his tilt away from Kyiv in the conflict. Trump hailed the news. “Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia,” he said in a post on Truth Social. Trump said that he had directly asked Putin in a phone call last week to release Hubbard, who was being held on charges he denies of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. He was the last American designated as wrongfully detained in Russia by the State Department. The Kremlin said the move was a goodwill gesture. Hubbard’s family thanked “President Trump and his team for opening the dialog with Russia which led to this joyful day. Our family can attest that there are wonderful blessings to be found along the hard road to peace.” Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov later said Hubbard was handed over to Witkoff at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport. In a video from Russian state news agency Ria, Hubbard can be seen wearing a green jacket and smiling as he met Witkoff. “Thank you very much for all your efforts,” the freed American tells Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent Hubbard “blessings,” Witkoff tells him, adding “from today, it’s a new life.” U.S. peace push The meeting between Putin and Witkoff, which Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to join virtually, came after the American negotiators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals at those talks, a U.S. official told NBC News, adding that “meaningful progress” was made as the Trump administration intensifies its peace push. Diplomacy has made little headway for months, and this renewed American effort has drawn widespread criticism as Trump announced a series of moves to bolster Russia while Ukraine accused the U.S. of withdrawing crucial support. “We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, intensifying a pressure campaign that has fueled concern the U.S. is no longer committed to Kyiv’s defense against the Russian invasion. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,” Trump said. Witkoff told Putin on Wednesday that “groundwork” had been laid for ending the fighting, and that he had brought documents outlining approaches to a possible deal. He also said he hoped that the Russian leader would consider resuming trilateral talks. Zelenskyy said that a potential trilateral leaders’ meeting was “one of the important ideas” raised in Oslo after Tuesday’s talks, which also included the leaders of Norway and Finland. Putin has so far insisted any meeting with Zelenskyy could only happen once a deal is finalized and take place in Moscow, a nonstarter for Ukraine. The Kremlin has also shown little sign of shifting from its hard-line demands, which include seizing Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region. Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia earlier this month and waived new sanctions on Moscow, drawing bipartisan criticism. He claimed Wednesday that negotiations to free Hubbard “would have come to a complete and total halt” if he hadn’t waived the sanctions. Kyiv, meanwhile, said it received no advance warning about at least three major Russian attacks and that restrictions on Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite service continue to hamper its aerial defenses and battlefield operations. After the talks with Witkoff on Tuesday, Zelenskyy told reporters the recent issues with intelligence sharing had been resolved. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks in Oslo “positive,” but said “nothing unexpected” came out of them. Rubio once again denied that the White House was behind any slowdown to Ukraine’s use of the internet service, saying this was an issue for Musk and SpaceX. Musk himself said last week any decision was down to Trump. Deadly Russian attacks continued to hit Ukraine, meanwhile, with at least nine civilians killed across the country Wednesday as Moscow ramps up its strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of winter. Authorities in Russia’s border Bryansk region said Wednesday that one person was killed in a Ukrainian strike.