Witkoff Called Putin a 'Humanitarian.' Vance Called It Being Nice.

Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American former teacher sentenced to nearly seven years for allegedly fighting for Ukraine, before Steve Witkoff sat down with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, the BBC reported. Good. Bring him home.

Then Witkoff called Putin a "humanitarian" for the release. A BBC reporter asked JD Vance if he agreed. Vance: "I agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage." He said he cared much less about what Steve said than about getting the man home. That's a very careful way to not answer the question.

Same day, the Kremlin said it was "ready in principle" to restart three-way talks, maybe around Nov. 10 in Abu Dhabi. Hours later, missiles hit Kyiv and six people were injured, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said. Putin's aide also said Russian troops are advancing everywhere along the front. Ukraine and its European allies say it's a stalemate.

I get it. Diplomacy runs on flattery sometimes, and if a compliment gets an American out of a Russian prison, fine. But words mean things. A "humanitarian" doesn't usually show up in the same news cycle as houses getting hit in Kyiv. Trump says a deal is "maybe now the closest we've been." We've heard "close" before.

What we still don't know: whether the Abu Dhabi round actually happens, what Witkoff put on the table, and what, if anything, Russia got for letting Hubbard go. Trump says there was no swap.