{
    "archive_path": "archive/1792620421.370601",
    "base_url": "www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release",
    "basename": "putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release",
    "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-21 22:07",
    "canonical": {
        "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release",
        "dom_path": "output.html",
        "favicon_path": "favicon.ico",
        "git_path": "git/",
        "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theguardian.com",
        "headers_path": "headers.json",
        "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt",
        "index_path": "index.html",
        "media_path": "media/",
        "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html",
        "pdf_path": "output.pdf",
        "readability_path": "readability/content.html",
        "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png",
        "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html",
        "warc_path": "warc/",
        "wget_path": "www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release.html"
    },
    "domain": "www.theguardian.com",
    "extension": "",
    "hash": "1PKHFCSAB2S7JZ811TRD",
    "history": {
        "archive_org": [],
        "dom": [],
        "favicon": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--output",
                    "favicon.ico",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theguardian.com"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:19.076360+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "favicon.ico",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:18.425731+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "git": [],
        "headers": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--head",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:19.511186+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "headers.json",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:19.080942+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "htmltotext": [],
        "media": [],
        "mercury": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "1.0.0",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:29.024692+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "mercury",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:25.047037+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "pdf": [],
        "readability": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor",
                    "/tmp/tmpjj2g83f1",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "0.0.11",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:25.035894+00:00",
                "index_texts": [
                    "Vladimir Putin ordered the release of an American man from a Russian jail as he met Donald Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on Wednesday for fresh talks on ending the war in Ukraine, amid increasingly close relations between Moscow and Washington.Trump had previously asked Putin to free Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old former teacher who had spent more than four years in Russian jails on charges of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.His release appeared to be Moscow\u2019s latest calculated move to bring Trump further into line with Putin\u2019s position on Ukraine, while offering the US president a diplomatic victory before the midterm elections.Hubbard was released unilaterally by Russia, rather than as part of a prisoner exchange as has often been the case with previous releases of Americans held in the country.Writing on social media after the release was announced, Trump said it followed a request he had made \u201cdirectly\u201d to Putin last week.He wrote on Truth Social: \u201cThe United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return \u2013 an unprecedented situation for Russia \u2026 There was no \u2018swap\u2019 necessary for this release.\u201dStephen Hubbard in court in Moscow in October 2024. Photograph: Moscow city court press service/APWitkoff, meanwhile, lavished praise on Putin during their meeting at the grand Constantine Palace in St Petersburg, describing the Russian president as a humanitarian.\u201cYou talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,\u201d Witkoff told Putin. He also conveyed Trump\u2019s thanks for a deal to resume Russian diesel exports to the US.The Russian president is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) as a war criminal, in relation to the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the war.More than 17,500 civilians have been confirmed killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the UN, which says the true toll is likely to be significantly higher.The warmth of Witkoff\u2019s remarks stood in stark contrast to the increasingly hostile rhetoric directed at Volodymyr Zelenskyy by senior US officials, most notably Trump, who has called for the Ukrainian president to resign and portrayed him as the main obstacle to peace.Witkoff travelled to Russia from Oslo, where he had met Zelenskyy and European leaders a day earlier in an attempt to inject momentum into stalled negotiations, with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in its fifth year.Witkoff told Putin during a televised portion of their meeting: \u201cWe\u2019ve brought some papers. It\u2019s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you\u2019ll read that at your leisure.\u201dThe visit was Witkoff\u2019s ninth to Russia since Trump tasked him with brokering an end to the war.Witkoff described his meeting with Putin as \u201cconstructive\u201d but said \u201cimportant work\u201d remained and trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine \u201cat the technical level\u201d would follow.The Kremlin said it had agreed \u201cin principle\u201d to the talks, which would focus on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended.\u2018You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,\u2019 Witkoff told Putin during their meeting. Photograph: Kristina Solovyova/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/APThe latest rupture in relations between Washington and Kyiv was triggered by Trump\u2019s surprise decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel as part of a deal with Putin, followed by his call for Zelenskyy to be replaced after Ukraine refused to halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries.Kyiv has since complained of disruptions to US intelligence-sharing and restrictions on its access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite network.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionZelenskyy said on Tuesday that Washington had resumed providing advance warnings of Russian missile attacks after his meeting with Witkoff in Oslo.But Ukraine continues to face restrictions on Starshield, although it remains unclear who ordered them. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk had personally ordered the slowdown, while Reuters, citing sources, said the directive had come from inside the White House.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday that the decision to restrict Ukraine\u2019s access came from Musk.\u201cI\u2019m not aware that we knew \u200babout this decision beforehand. But that\u2019s irrelevant,\u201d Rubio told reporters \u200cduring a trip to India.\u201cThe bottom \u200cline is that, that is governed by a private commercial contract as to how their stuff can be used and what speeds \u200cthey\u2019ll allow it to be used at.\u201dDuring Wednesday\u2019s meeting with Witkoff, Putin thanked Trump and his wife, Melania, for \u201ctheir attention to efforts to end the war\u201d.Yet there are few signs of an imminent breakthrough. Despite repeated Ukrainian calls for a ceasefire, including a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, Moscow has given little indication that it intends to end its bombardment of Ukraine as winter approaches, apparently confident that continued pressure will help it extract greater concessions from Kyiv.The Russian leader remains intent on sticking to his maximalist war aims, including his demand for full Russian control of Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk region.Putin also sought to emphasise the prospects for closer economic ties between Russia and the US once the war ends, suggesting that Moscow could significantly increase its exports of fertilisers to the American market.Russian officials said the first tanker carrying diesel to the US would depart on Thursday as part of an initial shipment of about 300,000 tonnes.Energy analysts and traders have questioned whether Trump\u2019s agreement to temporarily resume Russian diesel imports will deliver meaningful relief to US consumers before the midterm elections, arguing that the volumes involved are too small to significantly ease the global supply squeeze.The talks on Wednesday also touched on a possible meeting in China next month between Putin, Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The Kremlin said Beijing was already making preparations for what it described as an unprecedented summit between the three leaders."
                ],
                "output": "readability",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:22.309346+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "screenshot": [],
        "singlefile": [],
        "title": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "curl",
                    "--silent",
                    "--location",
                    "--compressed",
                    "--max-time",
                    "120",
                    "--user-agent",
                    "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:22.304268+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "Putin orders release of jailed American as he meets Trump envoy for Ukraine talks | Russia | The Guardian",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:22.239421+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ],
        "wget": [
            {
                "cmd": [
                    "wget",
                    "--no-verbose",
                    "--adjust-extension",
                    "--convert-links",
                    "--force-directories",
                    "--span-hosts",
                    "--no-parent",
                    "-e",
                    "robots=off",
                    "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv",
                    "--timeout=120",
                    "--restrict-file-names=windows",
                    "--page-requisites",
                    "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3",
                    "--compression=auto",
                    "--timestamping",
                    "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
                ],
                "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3",
                "end_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:22.233730+00:00",
                "index_texts": null,
                "output": "www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release.html",
                "pwd": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
                "schema": "ArchiveResult",
                "start_ts": "2026-10-21T22:20:19.518204+00:00",
                "status": "succeeded"
            }
        ]
    },
    "icons": null,
    "is_archived": true,
    "is_static": false,
    "latest": {
        "archive_org": null,
        "dom": null,
        "favicon": "favicon.ico",
        "git": null,
        "media": null,
        "pdf": null,
        "screenshot": null,
        "singlefile": null,
        "title": "Putin orders release of jailed American as he meets Trump envoy for Ukraine talks | Russia | The Guardian",
        "warc": null,
        "wget": "www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release.html"
    },
    "link_dir": "/data/archive/1792620421.370601",
    "newest_archive_date": "2026-10-21T22:20:25.047037+00:00",
    "num_failures": 0,
    "num_outputs": 6,
    "oldest_archive_date": "2026-10-21T22:20:18.425731+00:00",
    "path": "/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release",
    "schema": "Link",
    "scheme": "https",
    "snapshot_id": "7cd2b609-dcc5-458d-b850-511f033035cd",
    "sources": [
        "/data/sources/1792620421-import.txt"
    ],
    "tags": ",world_news,war-wiki,pool",
    "tags_str": "world_news,war-wiki,pool",
    "timestamp": "1792620421.370601",
    "title": "Putin orders release of jailed American as he meets Trump envoy for Ukraine talks | Russia | The Guardian",
    "updated": "2026-10-21T22:20:18.425529+00:00",
    "updated_date": "2026-10-21 22:20",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/putin-witkoff-russia-ukraine-trump-stephen-hubbard-release"
}