President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to meet with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21, The New York Times reported.
Witkoff and Kushner are expected to take the next step in their efforts to “show the benefits of deal-making with Mr. Putin” by securing the release of “a long-held American.”
The report does not identify the American. The Times reported that the only American the U.S. State Department categorizes as “wrongfully detained” in Russia is Stephen Hubbard, who fought for the Ukrainian armed forces and was sentenced to six years and 10 months in a penal colony.
On October 20, Trump’s negotiators met with Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo. No details of the meeting were available at the time of writing. Witkoff attended in person, while Kushner participated remotely because he had the flu. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb also joined the meeting.
Stephen Hubbard is 72. In October 2024, a Russian court sentenced him to six years and 10 months in a standard-security penal colony on mercenary charges. Investigators alleged that Hubbard joined the territorial defense forces in Izium, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in February 2022 (he had lived there since 2014), but was captured by Russian forces in April and later put on trial.
In April 2025, while the previous U.S. presidential administration was still in office, the State Department called on Russia to release Hubbard.
Read more
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- U.S. pushes to revive Ukraine–Russia talks after Witkoff and Kushner meet Zelensky in Kyiv
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