A screen installed in a room of the Moscow City Court broadcasts the verdict in the trial of US citizen Stephen Hubbard, accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine, in Moscow on October 7, 2024.
Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
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Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he released American Stephen Hubbard from a Russian prison at the request of President Trump.
The announcement comes as negotiations between Putin and White House envoy Steve Witkoff focus on U.S. efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Stephen Hubbard, 74, of Michigan, was arrested by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2022 and then sentenced – after a closed trial in 2024 – to nearly seven years in prison for serving as a mercenary in the Ukrainian army.
As talks with Witkoff began in St. Petersburg, Russia’s former imperial capital, Putin announced that Hubbard had been released and was already at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport.
Before the talks, Trump said he had asked Putin to release Hubbard, who the United States had officially designated as being wrongly detained under the Biden administration.
Hubbard’s release comes as Trump lifted some sanctions on Moscow — and openly criticized Ukraine — as part of U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the war.
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