Stephen James Hubbard, a retired American teacher, was released by Russia on Wednesday after nearly five years in detention, amid an apparent warming of relations between Washington and Moscow.
The 74-year-old from Michigan had been living in eastern Ukraine for years when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. He was detained two months into the war as Russia seized swaths of Ukrainian territory. Two years later, he was convicted by a Russian court of serving as a mercenary.
News of his release follows a meeting Wednesday between President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they were expected to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff thanked Putin for freeing Hubbard during their on-camera interviews. He then met Hubbard in person in St. Petersburg before taking a flight back to the United States.
In a video from Russian news agency Ria, Hubbard can be seen smiling as he meets Witkoff. “Thank you very much for all your efforts,” he says to Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent “blessings” to Hubbard, Witkoff told him, adding “from today it’s a new life.”
During the meeting, Witkoff said on
Witkoff shared an image of Hubbard on a plane next to the American flag and several others, writing that he was “going home to his family.”
Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s attorney, told NBC News in a telephone interview Wednesday that he spoke with Hubbard as he “was getting ready to take off” on a plane bound for the United States and that his client was pleased to be released.
“He was overwhelmed with joy,” De Luca said. “The first thing he was excited about was seeing his children and family, who will be waiting for him when he arrives in the United States tonight. He was in fragile condition, so it wasn’t a long conversation, but he’s fine, that’s what’s important.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin released Hubbard “for humanitarian reasons,” although Russia did not provide further details.
Hubbard’s family acknowledged the role of Trump and Putin in securing his release.
“We have grave concerns for his safety and health since his detention in 2022,” Hubbard’s son, Joseph Coleman, said in a statement on behalf of the family. “We never once hesitated as we prayed for the success of these negotiations, and we must recognize that this humanitarian approach by President Putin in this matter is deeply appreciated,” the statement said.
Coleman, a Greek Orthodox priest who lives in Cyprus, wrote Putin “a long and very moving letter” last month, De Luca said.
In the letter, Coleman told the Russian leader that Hubbard’s family “feared that he would die without ever seeing his children or grandchildren,” De Luca said. Coleman had also described his father’s background and family history and emphasized his faith.
Trump welcomed Hubbard’s return, presenting it as a demonstration of the Kremlin’s “respect” for its American counterparts.
“Stephen is on his way home and will be with his family soon,” Trump said in an article on Truth Social on Wednesday, shortly after Witkoff announced Hubbard’s release. “The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return – an unprecedented situation for Russia. »
No “exchange” was necessary for this release, Trump added, although in a later message he said “these negotiations would have been completely and utterly broken down” if the United States had implemented the sanctions he waived last week.
Hubbard was convicted in a closed-door trial in 2024, with very little information about his case reported by Russian state media.
At the time, Russian prosecutors claimed that when the Kremlin launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022, Hubbard voluntarily joined a territorial defense battalion in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had lived since 2014. Prosecutors said Hubbard took part in the war in Ukraine and regularly received financial compensation before his detention in April 2022 as advancing Russian forces seized the city.
“He was aware of the illegal nature of his actions, but, with the deliberate intention of personally enriching himself, he carried out the orders of his superiors, which involved direct participation in combat operations alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine against servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia.
Russian state media reported that he had pleaded guilty to the charges against him. After Hubbard’s release Wednesday, De Luca stood by his previous statements that Hubbard told him the accusations were false and that he was not part of any combat or military unit.
The New York Times reported last year that Patricia Hubbard Fox, Hubbard’s sister, disputed that he fought for Ukraine, as did three former Ukrainian prisoners of war held with Hubbard.
The newspaper also quotes Fox as saying his brother had a master’s degree in English and had lived in Japan and Cyprus before moving to eastern Ukraine, where he had a Ukrainian partner. Fox also said Hubbard taught English online when he needed money and spoke neither Ukrainian nor Russian.
Izyum, where Fox said his brother settled, was occupied by Russia for six months in 2022 but was later retaken by Ukraine in a major counter-offensive. It is currently held by Ukraine and is not one of the four Ukrainian oblasts that Russia illegally annexed.
Hubbard’s release from Russian custody comes just months after the August release of former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, who spent more than four years in a Russian prison.
Washington accuses Moscow of arbitrarily detaining U.S. citizens in Russia for years, with their cases often used to negotiate prisoner swaps, including for state-backed intelligence agents detained around the world.
In some of the most high-profile cases, American journalist Evan Gershkovich was released in a 2024 exchange, alongside Marine veteran Paul Whelan – both had been imprisoned on espionage charges. WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained on drug charges in 2022, was released after the Biden administration negotiated her release in exchange for a Russian arms dealer.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and senior director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council think tank, said that despite the description of Hubbard’s release, “it was not a gift. It was not a gift to the United States.”
He told the “Here’s the Scoop” podcast that he came after the release of a prominent Russian war blogger, Mikhail Zvinchuk, who was arrested in Montenegro in October and released after the United States chose not to extradite him.
“Russia got a bad guy who we should have stopped, and we got an American who was innocent. That’s the trend,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the same day that Hubbard was released, Russia said it had arrested a German national accused of serving in the Ukrainian military.
Russia’s Federal Security Service did not release the man’s name or any other identifying details, and did not say where or when the man was arrested.
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