Russia releases American Stephen Hubbard after four years in prison

American Stephen Hubbard has been freed from a Russian prison and is on his way home after United States President Donald Trump said his administration had secured his release.

“Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, adding that the US was not required to give anything in return for the release of the 74-year-old former teacher from Michigan.

The deal came during a visit to Russia by a top US envoy, and just days after Trump took a series of actions seen as beneficial to Moscow.

Hubbard, whose family says had been living in Ukraine since before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, was tried and convicted in a closed-door trial, with Russian prosecutors saying he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military and had fought alongside its forces before being captured. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024.

The US had declared Hubbard a wrongfully detained American.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine war, told him that “our whole nation sends their thanks” and that Putin was a “humanitarian” for allowing Hubbard to walk free. Witkoff briefly met with Hubbard in St. Petersburg after his release, telling him, “from today is a new life for you”.

The release came at a dynamic moment in relations between the US, Ukraine and Russia, with the Washington-Kyiv relationship under strain at the same time that the Trump administration has pursued policies which Ukraine says have rewarded Putin.

Those include Trump’s decision last week to waive sanctions on Russia imposed by a bill that the US Congress overwhelmingly passed to support Ukraine.

Named after the late South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the legislation targeted the flow of financial resources fuelling Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

That reversal followed Trump’s announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel fuel in an effort to curb high gas prices before next month’s US midterm elections.