A retired American schoolteacher is free after four years in Russian custody, and the timing is no coincidence. His release arrived just as a top U.S. envoy sat down with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg — the latest chapter in a rapidly shifting diplomatic relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired Michigan teacher, on Wednesday, ending a detention that began in 2022. Hubbard had been held on charges — which he denied — of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. He was the last American citizen formally designated as “wrongfully detained” in Russia by the U.S. State Department.
The news broke during a meeting between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Putin confirmed Hubbard was already at the airport when the two men spoke. Witkoff, in remarks carried by Russian state news agencies, heaped praise on the Russian president, saying
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir.”
President Trump had personally appealed to Putin for Hubbard’s release, according to remarks Trump made to reporters on Tuesday. The freed teacher’s return gives Trump a tangible diplomatic win at a moment when his administration has faced mounting criticism — both domestically and from U.S. allies — over its increasingly conciliatory posture toward the Kremlin.
Talks in Oslo, Then St. Petersburg
Witkoff’s Wednesday meeting with Putin followed a separate round of talks in Oslo, Norway, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alongside the leaders of Norway and Finland. A U.S. official told NBC News that Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals at those talks and that “meaningful progress” was made. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Oslo discussions “positive,” though he said “nothing unexpected” came out of them. “Armed with those ideas,” Rubio said, Witkoff would carry Ukraine’s proposals to St. Petersburg to share with the Russian side — “and let’s see if we can make some progress.”
Witkoff told Putin that “groundwork” had been laid for ending the fighting and that he had brought written documents outlining potential approaches to a peace deal. He also expressed hope that Putin would consider resuming trilateral negotiations. Jared Kushner was expected to join the St. Petersburg meeting virtually.
Zelenskyy said after the Oslo talks that a potential three-way leaders’ summit was
“one of the important ideas”
raised in the discussions. But Putin has so far insisted any meeting with Zelenskyy could only happen after a deal is finalized and would need to take place in Moscow — a condition Ukraine has flatly rejected. The Kremlin has also shown little movement on its core territorial demands, which include seizing Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region.
Pressure on Ukraine, Concessions to Russia
The diplomatic push comes against a backdrop of sharp tension over U.S. support for Ukraine. Trump has made clear he wants a swift resolution to the war in Ukraine, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, “We want Zelenskyy to make a deal. We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”
Earlier this month, Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia and waived new sanctions on Moscow. Ukraine says it received no advance warning about at least three major Russian attacks, and that restrictions on Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite service continue to limit its aerial defenses and battlefield operations. Rubio denied that the White House was responsible for any slowdown in the satellite service, saying the matter was between Musk and SpaceX. Musk himself said last week that any decision was up to Trump.
After meeting with Witkoff in Oslo, Zelenskyy told reporters that recent friction over U.S. security cooperation had been addressed, saying “We are thankful that intelligence works now — I am speaking about early warning systems, which are very important for our people, for our children and civilians.”
Meanwhile, deadly Russian strikes continued across Ukraine on Wednesday, with at least nine civilians killed as Moscow intensified attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of winter. In Russia’s Bryansk border region, authorities reported one person killed in a Ukrainian strike. For a closer look at Trump’s latest push in the Ukraine peace talks, NBC News has additional reporting on the diplomatic effort and what it may mean for the conflict’s trajectory.
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