President Vladimir Putin announced Russia will release 74-year-old American Stephen Hubbard during talks with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Oct. 21. Hubbard was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison in 2024 after being convicted of serving as a mercenary.
Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher from Michigan who spent years living in Ukraine, has been taken to Pulkovo Airport following high-level diplomatic discussions in Russia according to state media reports. The release marks a major development in ongoing negotiations between Washington and Moscow over detained U.S. citizens, culminating in Hubbard’s transport to the airport as President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Capture and Trial of Stephen Hubbard in Izyum
Hubbard grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan, and served in the U.S. Air Force and National Guard before earning a master’s degree in English. He spent 25 years teaching English in Japan, lived in Cyprus, and eventually moved to Izyum in eastern Ukraine in 2014 alongside a Ukrainian partner, according to family records and interviews. His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, noted that he lived on a pension of roughly $300 a month with minimal local connections.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russian forces seized Izyum two months later. Hubbard was captured before Ukrainian troops retook the city in September 2022. State prosecutors subsequently accused him of joining a Ukrainian territorial defense unit, receiving training, weapons, and ammunition, and being promised $1,000 a month. In October 2024, following a closed trial in Moscow, a court convicted Hubbard of serving as a mercenary and sentenced him to six years and 10 months in prison.
Hubbard Family Contests Reported Confession
While Russian state media reported that Hubbard pleaded guilty to the charges, his family and legal representation strongly contested the narrative. Fox questioned the reported confession, pointing out that her brother held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to take up arms in his seventies. Martin De Luca, a U.S.-based lawyer representing Hubbard, stated that his client maintained the charges were false and that he had simply been pulled from his home by Russian soldiers without participating in any combat unit.
The U.S. State Department officially designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained
in January 2025, a classification that unlocked federal mechanisms to press for his release. Before his trial, Hubbard had been moved through at least five different Russian detention centers, and his legal team did not learn he was being held in the Mordovia region east of Moscow until April 2025.
Diplomatic Talks in St. Petersburg and the Diesel Deal
The breakthrough in Hubbard’s case unfolded during diplomatic exchanges in St. Petersburg involving Witkoff, Putin, and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump had raised Hubbard’s case directly with Putin, telling reporters that the administration had been focused on securing his freedom.
During the meeting at Constantine Palace, Witkoff expressed gratitude to Putin on Trump’s behalf not only for releasing Hubbard, but also for a separate bilateral agreement permitting the import of Russian diesel. Putin announced that the first shipment under the new arrangement would depart Russia within two to three days.
Russia frees US citizen Stephen Hubbard, state media report https://t.co/r2gR9rjlpo
Your decision to remove export controls on diesel oil from Russia, not just to the US but also to the world at large in the midst of an economic shock, I think that was really important that that happened.
Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy, via BBC
The diesel arrangement has drawn sharp criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, worsening diplomatic friction between Kyiv and Washington as the White House pushes for a negotiated peace settlement.
Medical Treatment and Expected Return to the United States
Following his release at Pulkovo Airport, Hubbard was reported to be in poor health. According to media reporting from U.S. partner networks, the freed American citizen is expected to travel directly to Texas to receive necessary medical treatment.
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Russia releases US citizen Stephen Hubbard captured in Ukraine, state media say, as Trump envoy holds talks with Putin https://t.co/FdMnZ8tHSa