Russia Frees US Citizen Stephen Hubbard During Putin–Witkoff Talks in St. Petersburg

Russia has freed 74-year-old American Stephen Hubbard, a retired Michigan schoolteacher held since 2022 on mercenary charges. President Vladimir Putin announced the release on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, during talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, and Hubbard was taken to Pulkovo airport. Washington says it gave nothing in return.

What happened in St. Petersburg

Witkoff flew into St. Petersburg on Wednesday morning for his ninth in-person meeting with Putin, a day after what a US official called "productive" talks in Oslo with Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders. The two men met at the city's Constantine Palace, with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Putin foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov at the table, and Jared Kushner joining via video link, the Oldham Times reported.

The talks opened with a goodwill gesture. As the meeting began, Putin announced that Stephen Hubbard had been released and was already at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport. "The president sends his thanks, our whole nation sends their thanks, because of Stephen Hubbard," Witkoff told Putin in televised remarks. "Because of you he's going home to his family."

Trump confirmed the release in a Truth Social post, saying the US had not been required to give anything in return. NPR reported that Trump said he had personally asked Putin to release Hubbard before the talks. gagariya covered Witkoff's Oslo trip on October 20.

Who is Stephen Hubbard

Hubbard, 74, is a retired schoolteacher from Michigan. Russian forces detained him in April 2022 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion began.

Russian prosecutors alleged he had been manning a Ukrainian military checkpoint, had joined a Ukrainian territorial-defence unit, and had been promised $1,000 a month. In October 2024, a Moscow court sentenced him to six years and ten months in a penal colony after a closed-door trial.

Hubbard and his family have always denied the charges. His US-based lawyer, Martin De Luca, told Reuters that Hubbard had said the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit. His sister, Patricia Fox Hubbard, told Reuters in 2024 that her brother was "so non-military" and too old to have fought. Washington formally designated him wrongfully detained under the Biden administration — at his release, he was the only US prisoner in Russia carrying that designation.

One disagreement is on the record: Russian state media reported that Hubbard pleaded guilty, while his lawyer and family say the charges were false. Neither version is independently verifiable.

Why the timing matters

The release landed in the middle of Witkoff's push to end the Ukraine war. It came days after Trump waived some US sanctions on Russia just before they were due to take effect — a move Putin praised and several US lawmakers criticised, according to NPR.

It also came a day after the Oslo meeting, which Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who attended, said had made "genuine progress." Zelensky said US intelligence warning Ukraine of Russian missile attacks was working again after Kyiv had accused Washington of withholding it.

De Luca, Hubbard's lawyer, thanked Trump, Witkoff and other US officials, calling the release "a dividend earned along the hard road to peace."

Key facts

• Released: Wednesday, October 21, 2026, St. Petersburg
• Detained: April 2022, Izyum, Ukraine
• Sentence: six years and ten months (October 2024, closed-door trial)
• Wrongful-detention designation: the only US prisoner in Russia holding it at release
• US concession: none, per Trump