The United States has secured the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American teacher who spent four years in a Russian prison, in an arrangement President Donald Trump said he negotiated directly with Vladimir Putin without offering anything in return.
Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan in his 70s, was detained in 2022 after Russian forces captured Izyum in Ukraine, where he had been living with his Ukrainian partner. Trump said on Wednesday that Hubbard was returning home and would soon be reunited with his family.
“The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return – an unprecedented situation for Russia,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social.
“There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release. This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin.”
Hubbard was sentenced in 2024 to almost seven years in prison after a closed trial. Russian prosecutors alleged that he had fought alongside Ukrainian forces as a mercenary and had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military.
The Biden administration had designated him as wrongfully detained. Footage released by the Moscow City Court showed Hubbard standing inside a glass enclosure during a court appearance in 2024.
Stephen Hubbard release finalised during Putin meeting
The arrangement was finalised during a visit to St Petersburg by Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, who met Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine.
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff told the Russian leader. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”
Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, said negotiators should generally avoid both “obsequious flattery” and “performative shouting”, arguing that one approach generated contempt while the other led to mutual posturing.
Witkoff’s meeting with Putin was his ninth, although his efforts to broker an end to the war have so far failed to produce a settlement. He had met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Oslo the previous day.
Trump also said that several people had contacted him to apologise for criticising his decision to waive sanctions on Russia and its partners that were due to begin under laws passed last month. He said they had not known he was negotiating Hubbard’s release and that imposing the sanctions would have halted the talks.
The US has nevertheless made several significant concessions to Putin in recent weeks, including a proposal to buy 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel, with the possibility of further purchases.
The Kremlin said after the meeting that Russia was prepared to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US as soon as next month. Zelensky said he would accept negotiations involving Trump and Putin, but argued that European leaders should also take part.
