American Stephen Hubbard was arrested in April 2022 in the city of Izium, in eastern Ukraine, where Russian prosecutors claimed he was on duty at a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American citizen who has been in the custody of Russian authorities since 2022, has been released and is at Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg.
The head of the Kremlin made this announcement during a meeting with the American envoy Steve Witkoff, in Saint Petersburg.
“The President expresses his gratitude, our entire nation expresses its gratitude, for Stephen Hubbard,” Witkoff told Putin during a televised meeting. “Thanks to you, he is returning home, to his family,” he added.
Trump confirmed the release in a post on Truth Social, stating that the USA was not obliged to offer anything in return.
Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer in the USA, thanked President Donald Trump, Witkoff, and other American officials for securing Hubbard’s release in a statement, describing it as “a victory achieved on the arduous path to peace”.
Hubbard, a retired professor from Michigan, was serving a nearly seven-year prison sentence in Russia, following a conviction for mercenary activities, pronounced in a closed-door trial.
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