‘You are a humanitarian,’ US envoy tells Putin after deal to secure teacher’s release

Kansas City: The US has secured the release of an American teacher who was imprisoned in Russia for four years, in a deal that President Donald Trump said he made directly with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and did not require anything in return.

Stephen Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan, was detained in 2022 after the Ukrainian town of Izyum, where he lived with his Ukrainian partner, was captured by Russian forces during Putin’s full-scale invasion.

He was sentenced in 2024 to nearly seven years in jail following a closed trial, with prosecutors alleging he fought alongside Kyiv’s forces as a mercenary, and signed a contract with the Ukrainian military. The Biden administration designed Hubbard as wrongfully detained.

Trump said on Wednesday morning (US time) that Hubbard, who is in his 70s, was on his way back home and would soon be reunited 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 statement posted to his Truth Social page.

“There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release. This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin.”

Trump added that “numerous people” had called him to apologise for criticising his decision to waive sanctions on Russia and its partners that were due to begin under laws passed last month.

They did not know that he was negotiating Hubbard’s release, he said. “If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”

While there was no direct prisoner swap, the US has made several major concessions to Putin of late, including the proposal to buy 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel – with potentially millions more to come.

Trump has also intensified his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming Zelensky does not want to end the war, but that Putin does, and calling for Zelensky to be replaced.

Hubbard’s release was finalised during a visit to St Petersburg on Wednesday by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin to discuss the war.

“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff told Putin. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”

Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, said US negotiators should generally avoid both “obsequious flattery” and “performative shouting”. “One generates contempt; the other devolves into mutual posturing,” he said on X.

It was the ninth time Witkoff has met Putin, but his shuttle diplomacy has so far failed to bring about an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Witkoff had also met with Zelensky and other European leaders in Oslo the previous day.

After the meeting, the Kremlin said Russia was prepared to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US as soon as next month. Such talks have not occurred since February, before the US-Israeli war on Iran.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Zelensky said he would also accept trilateral negotiations with Trump and Putin, but it would be better if European leaders were also involved.

He would oppose any trilateral forum that included China but excluded Ukraine. “I always said we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics, but don’t speak about us without us please,” Zelensky told Fox News.

With Reuters, AP

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