Stephen James Hubbard, a retired American teacher, was released by Russia on Wednesday after nearly five years in detention in the midst of an apparent warming of ties between Washington and Moscow. The 74-year-old from Michigan had been living in eastern Ukraine for years when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. He was detained two months into the war as Russia captured swaths of Ukrainian territory.
Two years later, he was convicted by a Russian court of serving as a mercenary. The news of his release came out of a meeting between President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, where they were due to discuss an end to the Ukraine war. Witkoff thanked Putin for freeing Hubbard during their on-camera talks, and Putin said the American was at St.
Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, suggesting his return to the U.S. could be imminent. Witkoff later met with Hubbard at an undisclosed location. In video from Russian state news agency Ria, Hubbard can be seen wearing a green jacket and smiling.
Putin sent Hubbard “blessings,” Witkoff tells him, adding “from today, it’s a new life.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin released Hubbard “on humanitarian grounds,” though Russia did not provide more details. Hubbard’s family acknowledged both Trump’s and Putin’s roles in securing his release. Joseph Coleman, who is an Orthodox priest, said in a statement on behalf of the family.
Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer, said in a separate statement that his client was the only American in Russia currently designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained. His firm appealed for privacy “as Stephen recovers and reconnects with the people who love him.” “Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, shortly after Witkoff announced Hubbard’s release. Hubbard was sentenced in a closed-door trial in 2024, with very little information about his case reported by Russian state media.
At the time, Russian prosecutors alleged that as the Kremlin launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022, Hubbard voluntarily joined a territorial defense battalion in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. The prosecutors said Hubbard took part in the war in Ukraine and regularly received financial compensation before his detention in April 2022 as advancing Russian forces captured the city. Russian state media reported he pleaded guilty to the charges. But De Luca previously told that Hubbard had told him the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit.
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