Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow has agreed to free the imprisoned US citizen Stephen Hubbard following a plea from US president Donald Trump.

Mr Hubbard, 74, had been held in Russian custody since April 2022 and was serving a nearly seven-year prison sentence in a penal colony for allegedly fighting on behalf of Ukraine, charges he denies.

Putin told US special envoy Steve Witkoff that the former schoolteacher was at the St Petersburg Pulkovo airport and waiting to fly back to the US with him. Witkoff thanked him for the goodwill gesture.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday that Moscow is willing in principle to resume talks next month with Ukraine and the US on ending the war in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

No such talks have taken place since February.

Ushakov said the negotiations should focus on security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.

The injured soldier airlifted from Ukraine’s frontline by drone cut off his own frostbitten leg in a desperate bid to survive, having spent more than a year alone in the kill zone before his dramatic rescue, according to reports.

Kostiantyn Vlasenko, 49, made history as the first person to be evacuated from a war-zone with a flying drone, as Russian UAVs and landmines made a conventional rescue impossible.

The rescue mission this month was the product of more than six months of preparation, coordinating helicopters, electronic warfare and artillery with the drone team on the ground, according to Ukrainian outlet Oboronka.

“The flight was calm, I mostly looked around the area,” the soldier told the outlet after his heroic rescue. “And when I landed, I felt safe and relieved – I would finally see my family soon. A special thank you to my clerk with the call sign ‘Lefty’ for spoiling me with goodies.”

The volunteer fighter from Kryvyi Rih, who was serving with Ukraine’s 30th Mechanised Brigade last summer, had reportedly spent 70 weeks stranded in Kharkiv oblast, reliant on airdrops of food, cigarettes and a Stephen King novel, until his evacuation on October 4.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr ​Zelensky has said he supports talks between the leaders of Kyiv, Washington ⁠and Moscow.

Speaking to FOX News, he said that he hoped that Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff would have positive talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

He said it ‌was important to have a freeze in the fighting and move to diplomacy and toward an agreement that includes security guarantees, praising ‌Trump’s call for ceasefires.

“It’s important to negotiate ‌trilaterally” with him, US President Donald Trump and Putin, he added.

Journalists from countries Russia considers “unfriendly” will be allowed to attend president Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end press conference in December, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“They will attend. Yes, [we will invite them] – as we always do,” Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS when asked whether media outlets from countries deemed unfriendly by Moscow would be invited.

The annual press conference will once again be combined with Putin’s “Direct Line” call-in show, during which he answers questions from Russian citizens.

The combined event, known as “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin: Year in Review”, will be held for the fifth time this year. The format was first introduced in 2020 during the Covid pandemic and revived in 2023.

Russia designates countries including the US, UK and EU member states as “unfriendly”, largely in response to sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

The exact date for the press conference has not been announced yet,

South Korea will withdraw some of its diplomatic personnel from Ukraine amid worsening relations between Seoul and Kyiv over the disclosure of the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war (POWs), Yonhap news agency reported, citing Seoul’s foreign ministry.

“This measure was taken because we judged it necessary to facilitate an amicable resolution of the issue and restore trust between the two countries,” foreign ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon said, according to Yonhap.

The move follows South Korea’s decision to recall its ambassador to Ukraine on 8 October after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky publicly disclosed the transfer of the two prisoners to South Korea during his speech at the UN General Assembly on 23 September.

Seoul claims the announcement violated a confidentiality agreement between the two countries.

Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social to celebrate Vladimir Putin’s decision to release Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen who was formally designated as wrongfully detained in Russia for four years.

“Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return – an unprecedented situation for Russia,” the post read.

Hubbard’s release comes after a number of US concessions towards Russia in recent weeks, including a deal signed by Trump to obtain diesel from Moscow.

Nonetheless, Trump claimed that “there was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release”.

“Welcome home Stephen, it’s great to have you back,” the statement quoted Trump as saying.

In televised remarks at the beginning of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said his goal was to discuss the resumption of trilateral talks involving the US, Russia and Ukraine.

He said a resumption of talks would allow technical teams to discuss the next steps toward a peace settlement.

Witkoff and Putin met at St Petersburg’s Constantine Palace, with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov also at the table. Witkoff said Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would join the discussion via a video link.

Witkoff said he would inform Putin about Tuesday’s talks 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 some US lawmakers, adding that it would help reduce prices for US farmers and truckers.

Putin thanked Trump and Witkoff for their efforts to end the war and said he was ready to discuss restoring US-Russian economic ties.

Putin was also due to meet later on Wednesday with Chinese premier Li Qiang, who is in St Petersburg meeting with other Russian top officials, the Kremlin said.

A former member of one of the British Army’s most secret surveillance units has, for the first time, told the dramatic story of his role in an undercover operation that ended with him being shot through the stomach, his partner mortally wounded, and a wanted IRA gunman fleeing injured into the night.

He was just 22 and serving with 14 Intelligence Company – the clandestine unit known simply as “the Det” – when he and another soldier set up a covert observation post beside a farm in South Derry on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March 1978.