Trump envoy Witkoff faces backlash for calling Putin a 'humanitarian' days after a Russian drone killed a Ukrainian baby
From the Newshound archive · first published 21 October 2026.
Stephen Hubbard, the Michigan teacher whom Vladimir Putin freed unilaterally — not in a prisoner swap — after being jailed in Russia for nearly seven years as a mercenary.
'You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,' Steve Witkoff told Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. He was praising the release of Stephen Hubbard, 74, a retired American teacher held in Russia for over four years. Lawmakers branded the remarks 'embarrassing and outrageous'. On Monday a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv killed teacher Inna Mariukhna and her one-year-old daughter Angelina.
Putin agreed 'in principle' to new trilateral peace talks with Ukraine and the US after November 10.
Volodymyr Zelensky says he is open to freezing the front lines: 'Right now, we have to freeze.'
The UN says Russian attacks killed 328 Ukrainian civilians in September alone.
