St PetersburgPutin announced Stephen Hubbard’s release during Steve Witkoff’s visit.
Hubbard, 74, had been held since April 2022 on mercenary charges for fighting for Ukraine.
Russia has long jailed Westerners as bargaining chips, and Dmitri Medvedev alluded to refilling its exchange fund on 9 October.
Russian state media have not reported Putin committing to trilateral talks with Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.
Putin reportedly wants to meet Trump in China next month, without Ukraine at the table.
How each outlet framed it
drawn from 100+ reports worldwide · These outlets told this story differently.
- Washington Post
- The Kyiv Independent leans critical
- traces Hubbard's case through Medvedev's hostage-exchange post and Montenegro's Rybar expulsion, framing prisoner swaps as Moscow's bargaining tactic
- Yahoo News UK
Sources: The Kyiv Independent, Washington Post, Yahoo News UK