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Moscow on Tuesday freed an American prisoner after the first-known visit by a member of President Donald Trump’s administration to Russia, in a deal the White House said bodes well for ending the Ukraine war.
The White House said Trump secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American jailed since 2021 on drug charges, as part of an “exchange,” without offering further details.
Steve Witkoff, a property developer and close friend of Trump who serves as his Middle East envoy, was involved in the release and was “leaving Russian airspace” with Fogel, the White House said.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in a statement.
“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” he said.
Witkoff, who earlier played a key role in pushing forward a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, would be the first senior U.S. official known to have traveled to Russia in recent years.
Former President Joe Biden shut off most contact, although intelligence chiefs and others still met quietly in third countries, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Biden’s government did, however, negotiate earlier high-profile swaps of prisoners.
The announcement on Fogel came hours after Trump said that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would visit Ukraine.
Bessent, another senior official in Trump’s team on a mission unrelated to his primary job, will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said in a social media post.
