Russia on Wednesday freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan, more than four years after he was captured in eastern Ukraine. The release came as President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sat down with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Putin told Witkoff during the televised meeting that Hubbard had already been taken to the city's Pulkovo airport, Reuters reported. Witkoff thanked him directly. "Because of you, he's going home to his family," he said, according to The Associated Press.
Unlike past releases, this one did not require Washington to hand anyone over, the White House said. Trump had said he spoke with Putin at length and asked him to let Hubbard go. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision was made on humanitarian grounds, NBC News reported.
Hubbard was living in eastern Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Prosecutors said he signed on with the Ukrainian military and fought for two months before being captured. He denied it. A Russian court convicted him after a closed trial in 2024 and sentenced him to six years and 10 months.
The Biden administration designated him as wrongfully detained. He was the last American held in Russia with that status.
His son, Joseph Coleman, thanked Trump and other U.S. officials, CNN reported. Hubbard is the second American Russia has released in about two months, after former Marine Robert Gilman was freed in August, Euronews noted.
Not everyone was celebrating. An advocacy group for detained Americans said five other families with relatives in Russian custody would struggle to understand why theirs were left out of the deal.
The release also comes after Trump waived new sanctions on Moscow and signed a diesel deal with Russia earlier this month, moves that drew criticism from both parties.