Russia Frees US Teacher Hubbard at Trump’s Request After Putin Meets Witkoff

Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired U.S. schoolteacher who had been in custody since April 2022, on Oct. 21, 2026, sending him to St. Petersburg to fly back to the United States following diplomatic talks that Washington indicated were a step toward ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the release during a St. Petersburg meeting with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin freed Hubbard at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, taking into account the American prisoner’s poor health.

Diplomatic Praise and Washington Rebukes

In state television footage of the meeting, Witkoff thanked Putin for the release and called the Russian leader a humanitarian. That description drew swift condemnation from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington, given Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Look up the definition of ‘humanitarian.’ What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say.

Thom Tillis

Trump stated on Truth Social that the United States was not required to give anything in return for Hubbard’s release, calling it an unprecedented situation for Russia without a necessary prisoner swap. Hubbard’s U.S.-based lawyer, Martin De Luca, thanked Trump and Witkoff in a statement, calling the release a dividend earned along the hard road to peace.

Disputed Mercenary Charges Lead to Imprisonment

Hubbard, a native of Michigan, had been serving a prison sentence of six years and 10 months following a closed-door trial on mercenary charges. Russian prosecutors alleged that he had been manning a Ukrainian military checkpoint in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum in April 2022, joining a territorial defense unit with promised pay of $1,000 a month.

While Russian state media reported that Hubbard pleaded guilty, his defense lawyer and family disputed the conviction. De Luca previously stated that Hubbard maintained the charges were false and that he was not part of any combat or military unit. In a 2024 interview, Hubbard’s sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, also rejected the allegations, describing her brother as entirely non-military given his advanced age.

Tripartite Talks Scheduled for November

Witkoff described his discussions with Putin as constructive and noted on X that he had also met with Ukrainian and European leaders in Oslo to advance efforts to end the conflict. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK that an agreement has been reached to hold a high-level tripartite meeting between Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv in mid-November to focus on a potential post-conflict security structure.

Hubbard’s son, Joseph Coleman, told Reuters in a voice message that he spoke briefly by phone with his father before the aircraft departed Russia, noting that his father sounded light in his step and happy. Hubbard was the sole U.S. prisoner designated as wrongfully detained by Washington before his release.

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