Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan, is free. Russia released him Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. U.S. officials had designated Hubbard wrongfully detained under the Biden administration.
Russia’s state news agencies reported the release. Putin said Hubbard was at Pulkovo Airport near St. Petersburg, while NBC News reported no immediate confirmation from the U.S. The AP said Witkoff announced the release during his meeting with Putin.
Hubbard had spent four years in Russian custody. It’s a long-awaited outcome. But deadly Russian attacks kept hitting Ukraine that same day.
A Closed Trial and a Long Detention
Russian authorities detained Hubbard in 2022. After a closed trial in 2024, a court sentenced him to nearly seven years in prison on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. He denied the charges. Prosecutors said he signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, then fought alongside Ukrainian forces until they captured him two months later.
A trial held behind closed doors leaves little room for public scrutiny of the evidence. U.S. officials had already concluded that Russia wrongfully detained him.
President Donald Trump said earlier in the week that he had spoken at length with Putin about Hubbard. “I’ve been talking to President Putin about Mr. Hubbard. I’ve been talking to him at length. I’ve asked him to release him. Let’s see what happens,” Trump said. On Tuesday, he again said he had raised Hubbard’s release with Putin.
Diplomacy on Two Tracks
The release came as diplomatic activity over Ukraine picked up. Talks in Oslo between U.S. negotiators, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, including the leaders of Norway and Finland, came before the St. Petersburg meeting. A U.S. official told NBC News that Ukraine had presented new ideas and proposals, and that “meaningful progress” had been made.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a more measured tone. He called the Oslo talks “positive,” but said “nothing unexpected” had come out of them. Witkoff, he said, would take the ideas to St. Petersburg and share them with Russia: “and let’s see if we can make some progress.”
The stated aim of the Putin-Witkoff meeting was to build on Oslo and create a path toward direct negotiations. Jared Kushner was expected to join virtually. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who greeted Witkoff at the airport, was also due to take part. Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said Ukraine would dominate the talks at Constantine Palace.
Zelenskyy said a possible trilateral leaders’ meeting was “one of the important ideas” raised in Oslo. Putin, however, has said a meeting with Zelenskyy could happen only after a deal was finalized and in Moscow, a condition Ukrainians considered unacceptable. The Kremlin hasn’t shown much sign of changing its demands, including that Russia seize all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
What Ukraine Faces on the Ground
Witkoff had tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement, and the war was nearing its five-year mark in February. Trump had signed a diesel fuel deal with Russia earlier in October and waived new sanctions on Moscow.
Kyiv said it received no advance warning of at least three major Russian attacks. It also said restrictions on Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite service continued to hamper its air defenses and battlefield operations. Rubio denied that the White House was behind any slowdown in Ukraine’s use of internet service, saying the matter involved Musk and SpaceX. Musk said the previous week that any decision was Trump’s.
Zelenskyy said after Tuesday’s talks that recent U.S. security-cooperation issues had been resolved. “We are thankful that intelligence works now — I am speaking about early warning systems, which are very important for our people, for our children and civilians,” he said.
On Wednesday, NBC reported that Russian attacks killed at least nine civilians in Ukraine as Moscow stepped up strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of winter. Authorities in Russia’s Bryansk region said a Ukrainian strike killed one person.
NBC described Hubbard’s release as a sign of warmer ties between Washington and Moscow amid U.S. pressure on Kyiv to agree to a deal ending the war. The report said Washington had courted the Kremlin for weeks, while Trump faced domestic and international backlash over a tilt away from Ukraine.
Why This Matters:
Hubbard’s freedom is a human outcome worth welcoming: a 74-year-old man held after a closed trial, and designated wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, is going home. Yet the timing raises questions about what else is moving in the same room. Ukrainian civilians are being killed as winter approaches and energy infrastructure comes under heavier fire. Kyiv says it got no warning of at least three major attacks, and that satellite restrictions are hampering its defenses. Meanwhile, the Kremlin hasn’t softened its demand for all of Donbas. When a prisoner release and a peace push unfold together, the public has a stake in knowing whether pressure falls on the aggressor or the invaded, and whether civilians in Ukraine are being protected.
- stephen hubbard
- russia
- united states
- vladimir putin
- steve witkoff
- prisoner release
- ukraine war
- st. petersburg