Trump's special envoy Witkoff arrives in St Petersburg for talks with Putin

On the morning of 21 October, US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff landed at Pulkovo Airport. He was met by Kremlin special representative for international economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev. The delegations from both sides then moved to the Constantine Palace, where talks on ending the war against Ukraine were scheduled.

Reuters and The Moscow Times confirmed information about this trip. Earlier, Reuters also reported that Donald Trump had personally appealed to Vladimir Putin to release Stephen Hubbard. The US leader hinted that the situation could change soon but did not provide specific details about any agreements.

Fate of American in focus

One of the priority issues of Witkoff's visit was to be the discussion of the fate of 74-year-old US citizen Stephen Hubbard. The man was captured by Russian forces in Ukraine back in 2022. Currently, reports of his release and presence at Pulkovo Airport lack independent confirmation.

Stephen Hubbard's story

Stephen Hubbard is a former English teacher who worked in Japan for a long time before moving to Ukraine. In 2014, he settled in Izium in Kharkiv Oblast with his Ukrainian partner.

After the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Hubbard found himself in territory controlled by Russian occupiers. He was detained in April of that year. The Russian prosecution accused the American of signing a contract with a unit of the Ukrainian territorial defence and participating in hostilities on the side of Ukraine.

Hubbard's relatives and his defenders denied these accusations, insisting that the man was captured at home. In October 2024, a Russian court handed down a verdict: the American was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison on charges of mercenarism. The US State Department officially recognised him as unlawfully detained and demanded his return to his homeland.

Talks context

Before his trip to St Petersburg, Steve Witkoff took part in talks in Oslo. There, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leadership of Norway and Finland, as well as representatives of other European states. Security guarantees for Ukraine, economic recovery plans, and next diplomatic steps were at the centre of attention.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio assessed the results of the Oslo talks as positive and stated that Witkoff would present the developed proposals to the Russian side. Russian Presidential Assistant Yuri Ushakov confirmed that the issue of the war in Ukraine would be the main topic at the meeting in the Constantine Palace, but did not predict reaching specific agreements.

It is worth noting that Donald Trump insists on the cessation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure, and the "energy ceasefire" announced by the US leader turned out to be significantly narrower than initially expected.