The Kremlin says Putin agreed to resume three-way Ukraine talks next month. A detained US citizen was freed.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume three-way negotiations next month with Washington and Kyiv aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Putin made the announcement after meeting U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, where he also said a detained American, Stephen Hubbard, had been freed.
Putin said Hubbard, 74, a retired schoolteacher from Michigan, had been released and was at Pulkovo Airport. He gave no further details. Hubbard had been serving a nearly seven-year sentence after being convicted of mercenary activity at a closed-door trial. Russian prosecutors alleged he manned a Ukrainian military checkpoint when he was arrested in April 2022 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum. Russian state media reported that he pleaded guilty, but his lawyer, Martin De Luca, told Reuters Hubbard said the charges were false and that he was not part of any combat or military unit. When he was freed, Hubbard was the only U.S. prisoner held by Russia whom Washington had designated as wrongfully detained. Witkoff thanked Putin for the gesture.
The talks at the Konstantin Palace in Strelna, outside St. Petersburg, lasted about three hours and were the ninth in-person meeting between Witkoff and Putin. Jared Kushner joined by video link. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the focus would be on building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends. He said proposals from a meeting a day earlier in Oslo, where Witkoff met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, contained little of real value. He later told Russian state television the proposals were a step in the right direction though Moscow was not fully satisfied. Putin said he was ready to consider restoring U.S.-Russia economic ties and to discuss the U.S.-led conflict with Iran, adding that Moscow could use its relationship with Tehran to help bring peace. Witkoff thanked Putin for agreeing to send diesel to the United States after Trump lifted a ban, saying the fuel would help lower prices for American farmers and truckers.
Zelenskyy said he supports the proposal. He said Russia supports a three-way meeting at the level of negotiating teams and that Kyiv hopes it will take place in early November, no later than that. He said Ukraine backs any proposal for a ceasefire, an end to the war, an energy ceasefire and humanitarian initiatives. He has insisted that only a summit of leaders can break the impasse. The last U.S.-mediated talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
The meetings come as Kyiv and its allies worry that Washington is backing away from Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump has pressed Kyiv to make a deal, saying Ukraine must end the war or face “a very bad thing.” Overnight Russian attacks on Kyiv killed three people and wounded 12, Ukraine’s military administration said. Outside Kharkiv, two people died and 11 were wounded when drones exploded in a residential area. Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said energy facilities were targeted in Kyiv and three other cities. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck a warehouse, an electrical substation and a bulk carrier headed to Odesa.
Information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters via ABC News Australia.