Putin has freed the 76-year-old American teacher who was captured on the Russian-Ukrainian front in the autumn of 2022

Stephen Hubbard, a 76-year-old American teacher, has been released from a six-year prison sentence in Russia, as announced by Vladimir Putin during a meeting with U.S. special envoy Steven Witkoff in St. Petersburg. Witkoff arrived from Oslo to present a new peace proposal regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Hubbard, who had been living in Ukraine and was captured in 2022 while allegedly joining Ukrainian territorial defense forces, was sentenced as a mercenary. At the meeting's start, it was revealed that Hubbard was already at Pulkovo Airport, cleared to return home. Reports suggest Witkoff's peace proposal includes new elements and may propose a trilateral summit involving Putin, Trump, and Zelensky, which Russia has previously rejected unless it involves signing existing agreements.