Witkoff's marathon St Petersburg talks with Putin end with release of US prisoner Stephen Hubbard

US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than four hours on Wednesday at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg, the ninth time the two have met in person, with Russia’s release of detained American Stephen Hubbard as the headline outcome (Reuters).

Putin told Witkoff that Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired US school teacher detained in April 2022 and sentenced to six years and ten months on mercenary charges he denies, was waiting at the airport to fly home with the envoy — a goodwill gesture Trump had personally raised (Straits Times).

Beyond the release, Putin conveyed his thanks to Donald Trump for his efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict and said Russia was interested in restoring economic ties with the United States, while Witkoff said there was a basis for a ceasefire and hoped Putin would consider resuming trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine talks, according to Interfax and TASS (Reuters). Putin also discussed Russia’s willingness to help resolve the war in Iran, per TASS (CNN).

Kremlin special investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev attended; Jared Kushner did not come due to illness, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said (Interfax).

The meeting came about 24 hours after Witkoff’s Tuesday talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the Oslo meeting was positive and that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv’s access to Starlink (Reuters). Ukraine reiterated its red lines: security guarantees and a rejection of territorial concessions (CNN).