NewzPresident Vladimir Putin agreed Wednesday to resume trilateral negotiations with Washington and Kyiv on ending the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin official said.The Russian leader has agreed “in principle” to resume the talks after Nov. 10, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters following a meeting in St. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.The trilateral talks will focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends,” Ushakov said.Witkoff's talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine came as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.As the talks began, Putin thanked Trump and Witkoff for their efforts to end the war.
The discussion lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said.Witkoff's visit came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in Norway's capital, Oslo.Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to U.S.-led peace efforts, more than 4½ years after Russia’s army launched an all-out invasion. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress, and there was no suggestion of an imminent breakthrough.Russia and Ukraine are still far apart in their terms for a settlement, as their armies remain locked on the battlefield and they pummel each other with daily long-range strikes.However, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said late Tuesday that the Oslo meeting, which he attended, “made genuine progress.”Zelenskyy said that freezing the conflict in Ukraine was the “minimum” required from Russia to bring about an end to the war.“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,” Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Fox News.Witkoff sees ‘some degree of momentum’ in peace effortsWitkoff and Putin met at St. Petersburg’s Constantine Palace, with Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev also at the table.
Witkoff said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to join the discussion via a video link.Before the talks, Witkoff said that he would inform Putin about Tuesday’s meeting in Oslo, which he described as “productive,” adding that “there is some degree of momentum.”He thanked Putin for lifting Russia’s ban on diesel exports, which angered som… Russia on Wednesday freed an American who had been jailed for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, in a deal completed during a visit by a top U.S. envoy and at a time when President Donald Trump has taken a series of actions meant to benefit Moscow.Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call last week to free Stephen Hubbard, and that, unlike previous releases, his had not required the U.S.
to give up anyone in return.“Welcome home, Stephen, it’s great to have you back,” Trump said.Hubbard, a 74-year-old former teacher from Michigan, was on his way home following a visit to St. envoy Steve Witkoff, who also held talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.Hubbard was sentenced in 2024 to nearly seven years in prison following a closed trial. Prosecutors said he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and that he fought alongside Kyiv's forces until being captured two months later.
government under the Biden administration designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained.The release came amid Trump moves to benefit RussiaWitkoff, a key Trump administration figure who has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement to end a war that will hit the five-year mark in February 2027, thanked Putin for releasing Hubbard, telling him, “Because of you, he's going home to his family.”“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” Witkoff said.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media on Wednesday that Hubbard’s release was “raised by the American side for a certain time,” and Putin decided to free the man out of “humanitarian considerations.”He added that general contacts "continue on a regular basis between the intelligence services.”The release occurred at a dynamic moment in relations between the United States, Ukraine and Russia, with the Washington-Kyiv relationship being roiled by fresh tensions at the same time that the Trump administration has advanced policies that aid Putin.Those include Trump's decision last week to waive sanctions on Russia imposed by a bill that Congress overwhelmingly passed to support… President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected fraud in the U.S.
Darline Graham, whose stumbles in her first campaign since replacing her late brother have Democratic voters hopeful — but not necessarily optimistic — their candidate can break Republicans’ grip on the state.Although South Carolina isn’t typically a midterm battleground, Trump has been deeply invested in Graham. He supported her appointment to replace Lindsey Graham after his death in July, and he backed her in a special primary when she faced several more experienced Republican opponents.Now the party wants to make sure Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, doesn’t pull off an upset victory. More than $34 million has flowed into the race, and Republicans have hammered Andrews as a “radical liberal” and accused her of supporting surgeries for transgender minors, which she denies.▶ Read moreRussia frees American Stephen Hubbard after over 4 years in prison, during a visit by US envoyRussia on Wednesday freed an American who’d been jailed for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, in a deal completed during a visit by a top U.S.
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