Stephen Hubbard (C-L), a 74-year-old retired U.S. schoolteacher who was freed after being imprisoned in Russia following his capture in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, is seen with his family heading home in a photo shared on Oct. 21, 2026. (@SEPeaceMissions / X)
For years, Father Joseph Coleman had little ability to influence what happened to his father, Stephen Hubbard, an American retiree imprisoned in Russia after being captured in Izium, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast occupied by Russian forces in 2022.
Hubbard, 74, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison after a closed trial in Russia. Russian prosecutors accused him of fighting for Ukraine as a mercenary, a charge his family has disputed. For Coleman, who lives in Cyprus and had not seen his father in years, the news of his release brought a long-awaited chance to see him "free and well."
“Two or three weeks ago, I was under the impression that all efforts were not going to be successful. Therefore, when I was told on Friday or Saturday that he would most likely be released, as they say, hope was rekindled,” Coleman said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent.
“Typically, I’m reserved until they say wheels up,” Coleman said. There had been another possibility of freedom in early 2025, he recalled, but it had fallen through. When the confirmation finally came, he said, he felt “overwhelming relief, joy.”
Coleman acknowledged that his father may have suffered mistreatment in captivity, though he said he could not be certain. “Many tragic things happen in war,” he said. “Was he mistreated? Some people say yes. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Some evidence points to that, but I wasn’t there.”
Despite his concerns, Coleman said Hubbard appeared healthier than he had expected and was in high spirits. Still, he acknowledged that the years in Russian captivity may have left emotional scars that are less visible.
“He looks good, especially considering what he’s endured,” Coleman said. “You know, there’s always some probably emotional trauma that’s hidden that he’ll have to work out.”
For now, Coleman is not pressing his father to recount what happened behind bars. He said he had not asked Hubbard about his experiences in Russian custody and would leave it to his father to decide whether — and when — to speak about them. Hubbard has always been a reserved and private person, Coleman said, and he would not be surprised if some parts of the ordeal remained untold, even to his family.
“He'll tell me if he wants to and when he wants to,” Coleman said. “I wouldn't even be surprised if he never tells me the whole story.”
While Coleman said his father has no plans to return to Ukraine, he hopes to one day travel to both Russia and Kyiv on a religious pilgrimage. For Coleman, an Orthodox Christian, the journey would be about faith rather than politics — a chance to visit sacred sites and the relics of saints that have drawn pilgrims to the region for centuries.
“As an Orthodox Christian, it was always my hope and dream to do a pilgrimage to Russia, both to Russia and actually even Ukraine, Kyiv,” Coleman said. “But not for political reasons in any way, just strictly spiritual or religious reasons.”
Questions about his father’s imprisonment
Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher from Michigan, had moved to Ukraine to live with a Ukrainian woman. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, he remained in the country.
“Things kicked off, and he didn’t leave,” Coleman said. Coleman said he believed his father’s continued presence in Ukraine had made him a target. A Russian court later convicted him of being a mercenary and sentenced him to 82 months in prison.
Coleman said his understanding was that “Ukrainians put him on a list of volunteers and because of that piece of quote-unquote evidence the Russian government accused him of being a mercenary."
“Witkoff’s pathetic fawning over this KGB thug betrays American values & security.”
Coleman objected to describing Hubbard as someone who had volunteered to fight for Ukraine, saying that the characterization was misleading and could have consequences for him and his father. He knew little more about the circumstances, other than that the woman had since moved to Cyprus with her daughter.
Coleman also pushed back on reports describing his father as pro-Russian, saying that Hubbard’s connection to the Russian Orthodox tradition was religious rather than political.
“He is a part of the Orthodox Russian tradition,” Coleman said, explaining that his father had entered the Orthodox faith through that tradition and had participated in Russian-tradition Orthodox churches in both the United States and Japan. Hubbard was not officially a member of any Russian Orthodox Church, Coleman said.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his father’s imprisonment and the negotiations that secured his release, Coleman expressed gratitude to those he believed had played a role. He named “God and Donald Trump and even President Putin.”
Asked about the Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war still held by Russia, as well as Ukrainian children taken from their families, Coleman said he believed families should be reunited.
“I think it's tragic when family members are torn apart and they should be reunited,” he said. “But beyond that, like I said, I have no political power.”
An unexpected meeting with Witkoff
Coleman was not directly involved in the negotiations that led to his father’s release. Much of the campaigning on Hubbard’s behalf in the United States had been undertaken by his aunt, Tricia, who lives in Florida.
Coleman, meanwhile, was thousands of miles away in Cyprus, where he said he struggled with his inability to help.
“To be honest with you, in Cyprus, I felt a little helpless not being able to do anything at all,” he said. “I’m a priest, so mostly I was focused on prayer.”
He nevertheless met U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at Witkoff’s home in Florida. Coleman said he rarely followed American political news and did not recognize Witkoff when he arrived.
“When I showed up at Steve’s house, we jumped out of the car, and there was a man with a golf club, and I didn’t even recognize him,” Coleman said.
“I told him later, I said, ‘I apologize, I didn’t recognize you,’” he recalled.
Witkoff’s role in the release drew criticism after he publicly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian.”
“WTF, Steve? Look up the definition of ‘humanitarian,’” Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis wrote in an X post directed at the U.S. envoy. “You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend Putin is a ‘humanitarian.’”
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal also criticized Witkoff’s remarks.
“Witkoff’s pathetic fawning over this KGB thug betrays American values & security,” Blumenthal wrote. “He should cite Putin’s humanitarian greatness to the prisoners he’s tortured & killed, the children he’s kidnapped, the Ukrainians whose country he’s bombing.”
Blumenthal co-authored legislation with the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham imposing sanctions and tariffs targeting Russia and Iran. Trump signed the measure into law in September but later waived many of its provisions.
Trump denied that the United States had made concessions to secure the American’s freedom.
The U.S. “gave nothing in exchange” for the release, Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that “we’re getting closer” to settling the war.
Asked by a reporter how waiving of sanctions did not amount to giving Russia something in return, Trump replied, “You are a stupid person.”
The exchange took place as Trump spoke to reporters en route to a rally in South Carolina, where he was campaigning for Republican candidate Darline Graham, the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s sister. He spent two years pushing legislation to sanction Russia. Asked about his sister’s reaction to the prisoner release and the decision waive sanctions, Trump dismissed the question, saying, “You don’t know anything, fake news CNN.”
“The other important thing, very important, is that we are negotiating with Russia right now on Ukraine. We are maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time. When you are close to a deal, you are having very delicate negotiations. You don’t put sanctions on it,” Trump told reporters.
Coleman said he did not believe sanctions are helpful.
“I think that sanctions don’t really help in the long run,” he said, adding, “I’m not really politically minded. I don’t actually even know how a sanction benefits or hurts someone, to be honest with you.”