Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy for peace missions, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “humanitarian” Wednesday after Russia released a U.S. citizen from detainment.
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff told Putin at a meeting in St. Petersburg. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.”
Stephen Hubbard, the U.S. citizen who was released, was captured by Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine in 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian prosecutors accused him of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.
Witkoff’s praise of Putin comes as President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump has called for Zelensky’s ouster and suggested that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to bring the war to an end.
Amid bipartisan backlash, Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia this month and waived sanctions against the country last week. He suggested Wednesday that the latter decision may have been linked to Hubbard’s release.
“If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt,” Trump said.
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