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.
The US envoy flew into Russia's second city on Wednesday morning to review new ideas on ending the war in Europe, with allies anxious that president Trump appears to be turning away from Kyiv while firming up relations with Moscow.
President Trump welcomed the news of Hubbard’s release on Wednesday, claiming the retired schoolteacher was released at his request in a telephone call with Putin last week.
“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 president said.
“There was no “swap” necessary for this release. This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden Administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin.”
Following a closed trial, a Moscow court convicted Hubbard of being a mercenary in October 2024 and sentenced him to six years and 10 months in prison.
Prosecutors said Hubbard had joined a Ukrainian territorial defence unit, received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised $1,000 a month. Russian state media said he had pleaded guilty to the charges he faced.
Family questioned the reported confession, however, saying Hubbard held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms in his seventies.
Martin De Luca, his US-based lawyer, told Reuters in June 2025 that Hubbard had told him the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit. He cited Hubbard as telling him Russian soldiers had simply grabbed him from his house.
Putin decided to release him this week on ‘humanitarian grounds’, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The prisoner release comes amid a detente between Washington and Moscow as Trump turns his ire back to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, the US president seized the opportunity to pile more pressure onto Ukraine to cut a deal with Russia and end the four-year conflict.
“We want Zelensky to make a deal,” he said. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”
The rift with Kyiv has was blown open by Trump’s October 9 announcement that he would lift sanctions on Moscow to allow for diesel exports in a bid to help lower prices in the US ahead of the November midterm elections.
Since the announcement, Ukraine has complained of disruption to some intelligence sharing and to its use of the Starshield military satellite system, though Zelensky said that a meeting with Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday had reached an agreement to resolve the issues.
Despite the apparently cordial nature of the Oslo summit, Trump remains frustrated with Zelensky, whom he has repeatedly rebuked and suggested needs to be replaced.
Putin, who has shown few signs of compromising on his central war aims, said on Wednesday that Russia would be open to restoring full economic ties with the US, in a sign of the deepening relationship with Trump.
He also suggested Russia could supply fertilisers in a larger amount the US.
Witkoff said he hoped that Putin would at least consider the resumption of trilateral talks with Washington and Kyiv, after the last round in Geneva in February came to nothing.
He said the talks this week in Oslo had been productive and that there was a basis for a ceasefire, according to Russian media.
Who is Stephen Hubbard?
Hubbard was placed in custody in 2022 after Russia captured Izyum, the city in Ukraine where he was living with his Ukrainian partner.
Local journalists have not been able to independently establish the circumstances of his capture, but his sister Patricia Hubbard Fox said she recognised her brother from a YouTube video.
The clip, which was recorded in an unknown location, appeared to show Mr Hubbard being questioned about his views on Putin and the war. Another video showed him with his hands bound, being struck with a sandal.
Fox said in 2024 that Hubbard was living off his pension and had few connections with local people – but the siblings haven’t spoken since September 2021.
Why was Stephen Hubbard imprisoned?
A Moscow court convicted Hubbard of being a mercenary during a closed trial in October 2024. He was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison.
Prosecutors said Hubbard had joined a Ukrainian territorial defence unit, received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised 1,000 US Dollars (around £747.83) a month.
State-owned media reported that Hubbard had pleaded guilty to the charges, but Fox argued that he held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms given his age.
Hubbard’s legal team argued that the charges were false and that soldiers had grabbed him from his home.
The US government under the Biden administration designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained. But The State Department has said Russia refused to grant US officials consular access.
The New York Times reported in February 2025 that Hubbard had been moved through at least five Russian detention centres before his trial.
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