Russia releases Stephen Hubbard during Witkoff’s talks with Putin
The American, convicted on a mercenary charge he denies, was taken to a St. Petersburg airport, according to a Kremlin account reported by ABC News.
Russia released detained American Stephen Hubbard on 21 October during US envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. The release ends more than four years of detention following Hubbard’s capture in eastern Ukraine in April 2022, according to ABC News. It was not immediately clear whether he had left Russia.
Putin announced the release during the meeting, Deutsche Welle reported. ABC News, citing a Kremlin account of the talks, reported that Putin said Hubbard had been taken to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport. Witkoff thanked Putin for freeing him and said Hubbard was going home to his family, according to the two outlets.
Hubbard’s detention and mercenary conviction
Hubbard, 74, was detained by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in April 2022, ABC News reported. His family said he had lived there as a civilian since around 2014. Russian prosecutors accused him of joining Ukraine’s military after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and fighting alongside Ukrainian forces until his capture two months later, according to Euronews.
Hubbard denies the mercenary charge, DW reported. A Russian court sentenced him to seven years in prison after a closed trial in 2024. Euronews reported that the Biden administration had classified him as wrongfully detained.
Trump’s account of the release and the Putin talks
President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin to release Hubbard during a phone call the previous week, ABC News reported. Trump also claimed that the United States gave nothing in return and that no prisoner swap was needed, according to DW. The terms of the release have not been independently established.
Witkoff’s meeting with Putin also addressed the war in Ukraine. ‘We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine,’ Witkoff told Putin, according to DW. Putin proposed discussing the restoration of bilateral ties between Washington and Moscow, DW reported.
The St. Petersburg meeting followed Witkoff’s talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway on 20 October. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described those talks as ‘positive’, according to DW. Witkoff’s discussions with Putin were their ninth in-person meeting, the outlet reported.
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Sources and context
- Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard during US envoy's visitEuronews (Greta Ruffino)
- Russia frees jailed American Stephen HubbardDeutsche Welle
- Detained American Stephen Hubbard released by Russia as Witkoff meets PutinABC News (David Brennan; ABC News contributors named in source footer)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.