US Envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg to Open Peace Talks; Imprisoned American Stephen Hubbard Released
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Constantine Palace on Wednesday, according to Russian media outlet RT.
The move signals a highly anticipated round of diplomatic talks that coincide with the release of imprisoned American citizen Stephen Hubbard and the formal initiation of negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
It also underscores an evolving diplomatic relationship between the White House and the Kremlin, highlighted by the strategic timing of Hubbard’s release.
During the open portion of the meeting, Witkoff explicitly thanked Putin for the release of Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired English teacher from Michigan who has been in Russian custody for over four years. Putin confirmed that Hubbard had already been transferred to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport to begin his return journey.
“The president sends his thanks; our whole nation sends their thanks,” Witkoff stated, adding, “Because of you, he’s going home to his family.”
In highly complimentary remarks, Witkoff noted, “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian—you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.”
The flattering rhetoric employed by Witkoff appears to be a calculated diplomatic maneuver to foster goodwill at the outset of broader geopolitical negotiations.
Hubbard, a US Air Force and National Guard veteran, had been living as a civilian in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum since 2014. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was detained by Russian forces in April 2022. Russian authorities accused Hubbard of acting as a mercenary, claiming he signed a $1,000-a-month contract to fight alongside a Ukrainian territorial defense unit.
In October 2024, a closed Moscow court convicted him and sentenced him to nearly seven years in a penal colony.
The US State Department, along with Hubbard’s family and legal team, have consistently rejected the mercenary charges as fraudulent. His sister and his attorney maintained that Hubbard held pro-Russian views, was in his 70s, and was simply abducted from his home by Russian soldiers.
In January 2025, Washington officially designated Hubbard as “wrongfully detained”, a legal status that authorized the US government to aggressively negotiate for his freedom.
According to US President Donald Trump, the breakthrough occurred during a direct phone call with Putin last week. Trump stated on social media that Russia released Hubbard “out of respect” and that the US was not required to concede anything in return, describing it as an unprecedented concession from Moscow.
Trilateral Summit and Broader Peace Talks
While Hubbard’s release marked an immediate diplomatic victory, the primary objective of Witkoff’s visit is to lay the groundwork for ending the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg directly from Oslo, Norway, where he had been holding preliminary discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A central piece of the St. Petersburg agenda is a proposal for a trilateral summit involving the world’s leading superpowers.
Putin confirmed during the meeting that he will discuss a potential Putin-Trump-Xi Jinping meeting to be hosted in China, as reported by RT.
“We have some ideas in this regard as well that we would like to share with you,” Putin told Witkoff, indicating that the Kremlin is receptive to engaging with the White House’s proposed peace framework.
The inclusion of Beijing in the peace talks underscores the complex, multilateral nature of the conflict.
