Steve Witkoff sat three hours with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday and called him a humanitarian. By nightfall Russia was hitting Kyiv.
Putin gave one man. Stephen Hubbard, 74, a former teacher, had been jailed in Russia since 2022 on a sentence of nearly seven years for allegedly fighting for Ukraine. He reportedly pleaded guilty. His sister told Reuters he held pro-Russian views and would never have picked up a rifle at his age. The State Department listed him as wrongfully detained. Putin announced the release in the room and said Hubbard was already at the airport.
Witkoff answered: "You, too, are a humanitarian, sir, and I commend you for that."
Trump wrote that there was no swap and the United States gave nothing in return. The giving came earlier. Trump agreed to buy Russian diesel in early October, lifted sanctions last week so the diesel could move, and did it weeks after signing a law to punish countries that buy Russian oil. He asked Putin by phone last week to free Hubbard. On Monday he said Russia "has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much."
Then Putin showed him what doing much looked like.
