Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “humanitarian.”
The comment came after Russia on Wednesday released 74-year-old American Stephen James Hubbard, who spent four years locked up under accusations of being a Ukrainian mercenary.
“He’s a 75 year old man. You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff said to Putin. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you.”
Hubbard was no mercenary, and the Russian president is no humanitarian. In reality, Hubbard was a Michigan native who lived a nomadic lifestyle, entering a relationship with a Ukrainian woman and choosing to stay in the country when it ended. He was arrested by Russia in 2022 and was tortured and starved while in prison.
This rhetoric from Witkoff—a former real estate developer who has somehow become the most trusted international diplomat aside from Trump’s own son-in-law, Jared Kushner—was widely panned.
“No. Putin is [a] stone cold killer,” Republican Senator John Cornyn wrote, opposing the Trump administration’s fealty to the Kremlin.
“Absurd simpering obsequiousness from a representative of the most powerful country on earth, and another American humiliation, to add to the growing, growing list,” Jimmy Rushton of The Kyiv Independent said.
Putin is also currently wanted on war crimes by the International Criminal Court, as his war on Ukraine has resulted in the deaths of at least 125,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 15,000 civilians. He has also created a Ukrainian refugee crisis, forcing millions of people to flee their homes since he began his invasion in 2022.