Russia Frees American Stephen Hubbard After More Than Four Years in Prison

World · Published 22 October 2026

Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen held for more than four years on mercenary charges, on Wednesday, October 21. The Associated Press report, carried by PBS NewsHour, says the release was completed during a visit to St. Petersburg by US envoy Steve Witkoff. CBS News reports that the release was announced during a Witkoff meeting with Vladimir Putin. Hubbard was captured in Ukraine in February 2022, and a Russian court sentenced him in 2024 to almost seven years in a penal colony.

US President Donald Trump announced the release on Truth Social. He wrote that Hubbard was on his way home and that Russia had acted after he raised the case with Putin by phone the previous week. Trump said the United States gave up nobody in return. In his words, there was no “swap” necessary for this release, a claim reported by both CBS News and PBS. The post ended with “Welcome home, Stephen, it’s great to have you back.” Witkoff, quoted by PBS, said: “Because of you, he’s going home to his family.”

CBS News reports a later Trump post that tied the release to a sanctions waiver. Without that waiver, he wrote, “those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.” The waiver and the negotiations it refers to are not described in detail in the coverage available so far, so the link between the two remains Trump’s own account.

The Kremlin has offered a limited explanation. According to the AP copy on PBS, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the release had been “raised by the American side for a certain time,” and that Putin acted on “humanitarian considerations.” Peskov also said contacts between the two countries’ intelligence services continue on a regular basis. CBS News reports that Russian state agencies, citing Putin, said Hubbard was at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg.

Hubbard’s health and next steps are only partly reported. CBS News says he is in poor health and was expected to be flown to Texas for treatment at a military hospital. Mediaite describes him as an English teacher from Michigan who was held since 2022, and notes that he is the second American freed from a Russian prison in three months, after Marine Robert Gilman in August. CBS adds that as many as ten other Americans remain in Russian custody.

Several points are still unknown. None of the reports confirms that Hubbard has reached the United States, and none gives a timetable for his treatment. Trump’s claim that no swap took place has not been confirmed by an independent source, and the coverage does not say what was discussed beyond the release itself. None of the articles reports a statement from Ukraine’s government. Russia has not published terms for the release, and the reports give no indication of when, or whether, the other Americans held in Russia might be freed.

The case is a reminder of how many foreign nationals have been caught up in the war. Russia convicted Hubbard on mercenary charges, which his sister has denied, according to Mediaite. The release is the latest sign that direct contacts between Washington and Moscow are producing individual outcomes, even as the wider war and the broader talks remain unsettled. Further detail is likely as the Russian and US governments give their accounts, and as Hubbard’s own condition becomes clearer.

This article was researched and written by an AI system from the sources listed above, under SavvyToolz's sourcing and freshness rules. Read the editorial policy.