ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired US schoolteacher in custody since 2022, from prison on Oct 21 and took him to St Petersburg to fly back to the United States, after talks that Washington said were a step towards ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement at a meeting in St Petersburg with US envoy Steve Witkoff, who later said the talks will continue towards planned technical-level discussions involving the US, Russia and Ukraine.
Witkoff thanked Putin for Hubbard’s release and called the Russian leader a “humanitarian”, in footage of the exchange, a remark that drew sharp rebuke from Republican and Democratic lawmakers given Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin had freed Hubbard at the request of US President Donald Trump, and had also taken into account the American’s poor health.
“The president sends his thanks, our whole nation sends their thanks, because of Stephen Hubbard,” Witkoff told Putin in a meeting shown on state TV. “Because of you he’s going home to his family.”
A video shared with Reuters showed Witkoff and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev meeting Hubbard, who wore a dark fleece and was clean-shaven, in an undisclosed location. He shook Witkoff’s hand and said: “Thank you very much for all your efforts.”
Hubbard’s son, Joseph Coleman, told Reuters in a voice message that he spoke briefly by phone with his father before he boarded the airplane in Russia.
“Today, he seemed light in his step, a sense of happiness in his voice”, Coleman said.
Three-way meeting planned on war
Witkoff called the talks with Putin “constructive” and said in a post on X that he had also met Ukrainian and European leaders in Oslo to advance Trump’s mission to end the war.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who met Witkoff, told public broadcaster NRK that the agreement to hold another “high-level tripartite meeting” between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv will likely happen in mid-November and focus on a potential post-conflict security structure.
Witkoff’s praise for Putin over Hubbard’s release was scorned by some in Washington.
Republican US Senator Thom Tillis said in an X post directed at the US envoy: “Look up the definition of ‘humanitarian.’ What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say.”
In a statement, Hubbard’s US-based lawyer, Martin De Luca, thanked Trump, Witkoff and other US officials for securing Hubbard’s release, calling it “a dividend earned along the hard road to peace”.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that the US had not been required to give anything in return for the release.
“The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return – an unprecedented situation for Russia. 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,” the post said.
“Welcome home Stephen, it’s great to have you back,” wrote Trump, who later also posted a picture of Hubbard appearing inside a plane with others and holding an American flag.
Family, lawyer disputed conviction
Hubbard, a native of Michigan, had been serving a prison sentence of six years and 10 months in Russia following a conviction for mercenary activity in a closed-door trial.
He was arrested in April 2022 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, where Russian prosecutors alleged he had been manning a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
Prosecutors said Hubbard had joined a Ukrainian territorial defence unit, received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised US$1,000 a month.
Russian state media reported he pleaded guilty to the charges. But De Luca previously told Reuters that Hubbard had told him the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit.
In a 2024 interview with Reuters, Hubbard’s sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, also disputed the idea that her brother took up arms for any government, calling him “so non-military” and pointing out his advanced age.
As of Oct 21, Hubbard was the only US prisoner held by Russia who was designated by Washington as “wrongfully detained”.
The Trump administration secured the release last year of another American jailed in Russia, schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who had been serving a 14-year prison term for drug smuggling. REUTERS