Vladimir Putin ordered the release of Stephen Hubbard from a Russian jail as he met Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg.
According to Reuters, the 74-year-old retired US schoolteacher in Russian custody since 2022, was freed from prison on Wednesday and taken to St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport.
The Kremlin chief made the announcement at a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg, without giving more details.
Witkoff told Putin in a televised meeting, “The president sends his thanks, our whole nation sends their thanks, because of Stephen Hubbard. Because of you he's going home to his family."
Martin De Luca, Hubbard's US-based lawyer, thanked President Donald Tru
mp, Witkoff and other US officials for securing Hubbard's release in a statement, calling it "a dividend earned along the hard road to peace".
Trump confirmed the release in a Truth Social post, saying the US was not required to give anything in return.
Hubbard, from Michigan, had been serving a prison sentence of six years and 10 months in Russia following a conviction for mercenary activity at a closed-door trial.
He was arrested in April 2022 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, where Russian prosecutors alleged he had been manning a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
Prosecutors said Hubbard had joined a Ukrainian territorial defence unit, received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised $1,000 a month.
Russian state media reported he pleaded guilty to the charges. But De Luca previously told Reuters Hubbard had told him the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit.
As of Wednesday, Hubbard was the only US prisoner held by Russia who was designated by Washington as "wrongfully detained."
