Trump Defends Plans to Ease Russia Sanctions and Hints at a Hostage Deal

President Trump, defending his decision to ease tariffs and other sanctions against Russia, said on Sunday that he was making "great progress" in a peace deal with the Kremlin and suggested for the first time that the process included "hostage negotiations."
He did not specify whose release he was seeking. But the only American now categorized by the State Department as "wrongfully detained" in Russia is Stephen Hubbard, a Michigan teacher who was seized from his home in Ukraine just months after Russia invaded that country in February 2022 and was charged with being a mercenary. He was sentenced to more than six years in a penal colony, on charges that the United States has said are fabricated.