Russia released a 74-year-old American citizen who was jailed for allegedly fighting on behalf of Ukraine, as President Vladimir Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg for talks.
Stephen Hubbard had been taken to the city’s Pulkovo Airport, Putin said during the meeting early on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump later said the former teacher was “on his way back home” and “there was no ‘swap’ necessary”. Following the release, Witkoff called Putin a humanitarian.
Hubbard, who was sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony in 2024, was accused of serving in a defence unit in eastern Ukraine when he was captured in 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, reported that Hubbard had been in poor health and was expected to be flown to Texas for treatment.
Witkoff gave praise to Putin for releasing Hubbard, saying: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian – you are a humanitarian also sir, and I salute that. I commend you.”
His comments sparked a backlash from lawmakers in the Republican party, with Representative Don Bacon posting on social media that it was “another embarrassment”. Senator John Cornyn said Putin “is a stone cold killer”.
In response to a question from the BBC about the backlash, Vice President JD Vance said Witkoff’s “job is to go over there and get a job done”.
“I care much less about what Steve said than about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family,” he said during a press conference in Ohio on Wednesday.
Hubbard was later seen thanking Witkoff as they met separately. Putin’s financial adviser Kirill Dmitriev was also present.
Writing on social media after Russian state media reported the release, Trump said it had followed a request he “made directly” to Putin last week.
In the past, detained Americans have primarily been released from Russia through prisoner swaps.
Trump also appeared to defend his recent decision to suspend sanctions on Russia two days before they were due to come into force, writing that “if sanctions would have been placed”, negotiations for Hubbard’s release “would have come to a complete and total halt”.
The US state department had previously classified Hubbard, from Michigan, as “wrongfully detained” and Trump on Tuesday had suggested that his release may be imminent.
“Watch what happens,” Trump told reporters, “we have been focused on Hubbard”.
The state department said in a statement that the release was “a welcome step that we hope leads to the release of all Americans unjustly held in Russia”. It also said that “there are currently no Americans determined to be wrongfully detained in Russia”.
Russian prosecutors had accused Hubbard of joining a Ukrainian military unit and receiving training and weapons. But his sister, Patricia Fox Hubbard, previously told Reuters that this was unlikely because of his older age and his disinterest in the military.
Hubbard’s son, Joseph Coleman, who is an Orthodox priest, said in a statement that he had prayed for many years for his father’s release.
“As I await the blessing of embracing him again, I receive his freedom not as a political victory, but as a gift of mercy,” Coleman said.
A lawyer for Hubbard, Martin De Luca, posted on social media on Wednesday: “The road to peace is difficult, but its human dividends need not wait for a final agreement.”
A spokesman for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian media that American officials had been seeking Hubbard’s for some time, and Putin decided to do it for humanitarian reasons.
Witkoffalsothanked Putin for the deal struck with Washington earlier this month to import Russian diesel, saying Trump was “deeply grateful” for it. Ahead of the US midterm elections in November, where affordability is top issue for many voters, Trump has sought to bring down fuel costs.
The first shipment under the agreement will leave Russia “in two to three days”, Putin said during the meeting, as quoted by state news agency TASS.
The diesel dealinfuriated Zelenskyand triggered a tumultuous few weeks of deteriorating relations during which Trump suspended a number of sanctions and said it was time for Ukraine to elect a new leader.
Kyiv meanwhile accused Washington of halting intelligence sharing on deadly Russian strikes, and claimed a sudden restriction to the Starshield internet service in its war effort had been deliberate. Zelensky said on Tuesday that intelligence sharing had resumed.
As talks were under way in St Petersburg, Zelensky posted on social media that “much depends on whether the American side can hear something new from Russia today – about peace, and not about continuing the war”.