US Envoy Steve Witkoff Meets Putin in St Petersburg – American Stephen Hubbard Freed

On Wednesday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff stepped off the plane in Saint Petersburg and headed straight for the Constantine Palace, where he shook hands with President Vladimir Putin. The meeting came on the heels of what State Secretary Marco Rubio called “positive” talks between Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo.

In a brief but heavily‑watched exchange, Putin announced that Russian authorities had released Stephen Hubbard – a 74‑year‑old former American teacher who had spent years behind bars after being convicted in a closed trial on charges of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. The release, confirmed by the Moscow City Court’s press service, was presented as a humanitarian gesture, and Witkoff publicly thanked Putin for it.

Hubbard’s case had long been a thorny diplomatic issue. Prosecutors in 2024 said he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia’s February 2022 invasion and fought alongside Ukrainian forces before being captured two months later. His family, however, has repeatedly disputed the accusations, insisting he was merely a civilian caught up in the conflict.

The timing of the release dovetails with a broader, uneasy attempt by Washington to smooth over frictions with both Kyiv and Moscow. President Donald Trump has publicly urged Putin to let Hubbard go, and his administration has been juggling a fragile cease‑fire dialogue while also pressing Kyiv for more intelligence sharing on Russian strikes.

Rubio hinted that Witkoff would deliver an updated proposal to Putin, aiming to “draw a line under” the bitter feud that has recently flared between Zelensky and the White House. The proposal, according to an Axios report, touches on steps toward ending the war, though concrete progress remains elusive.

Adding another layer to the high‑stakes rendezvous, reports say Trump’s son‑in‑law Jared Kushner will join the talks virtually, while Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev is slated to meet Witkoff at the airport. The whole episode underscores how intertwined personal diplomacy, strategic calculations, and the fate of a single imprisoned American have become in the larger East‑West chess game.