Russia Frees Stephen Hubbard as Witkoff Meets Putin in St. Petersburg

Stephen Hubbard released: Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American jailed for more than four years on charges that he fought as a mercenary for Ukraine, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, while U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was meeting President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Russian state media quoted Putin as saying Hubbard had been taken to the city’s Pulkovo Airport.

President Donald Trump wrote on social media that the release followed a request he “made directly” to Putin the previous week and that “there was no ‘swap’ necessary,” according to the BBC. CBS News reported that Trump also said Hubbard would not have been released had the White House not stopped new sanctions on Russia from taking effect at the end of last week.

Who is Stephen Hubbard?

Hubbard is a retired schoolteacher from Michigan who had lived in Ukraine for years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to NBC News and The Wall Street Journal. Russian forces detained him in the eastern part of the country shortly after the invasion began. Prosecutors accused him of serving in a defense unit in the eastern city of Izyum, the BBC reported, and a Moscow court sentenced him in 2024 to almost seven years in a penal colony.

Hubbard and the U.S. government have denied that he was a mercenary, the Journal reported. The State Department had designated him as wrongfully detained. CBS News said he was the last American in Russia with that formal designation, and that as many as 10 other Americans, including dual nationals, remain in Russian custody. Hubbard is in poor health and was expected to be flown to Texas for treatment at a military hospital, according to CBS.

What happened at the Constantine Palace talks

The release came during talks at the Constantine Palace outside St. Petersburg that focused on the war in Ukraine. Video from the meeting showed Witkoff thanking Putin. “I wanted to thank you very much. The president sends his thanks,” Witkoff said, according to CBS. “Because of you, he’s going home to his family.”

Russian state media reported that Witkoff also thanked Putin on Trump’s behalf for a deal struck earlier this month for the United States to import Russian diesel. Putin said the first shipment under that agreement would leave Russia “in two to three days,” according to the state news agency TASS, as cited by the BBC.

The state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the two sides discussed the results of talks held a day earlier in Oslo, and that Witkoff brought documents “outlining approaches to the peace process.” They also discussed Iran, a possible meeting in China and economic cooperation, according to the same report.

The Oslo track and Ukraine’s position

The St. Petersburg meeting followed talks in Oslo on Tuesday between Witkoff, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of Norway and Finland. A U.S. official told NBC News that Ukraine had brought forward new proposals and that “meaningful progress” was made. Zelenskyy said a possible three-way leaders’ meeting was “one of the important ideas” raised. The Boston Report covered that meeting in Oslo Peace Talks: Witkoff Meets Zelenskyy Before Planned Putin Trip.

As the St. Petersburg talks were under way, Zelenskyy wrote that “much depends on whether the American side can hear something new from Russia today – about peace, and not about continuing the war,” the BBC reported. The Kremlin has insisted that any meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy take place only once a deal is finalized and in Moscow, according to NBC News.

Why the release matters now

The release lands during weeks of strain between Washington and Kyiv. Trump suspended several Russian sanctions this month, saying they would hinder peace efforts, and said it was time for Ukraine to elect a new leader, the BBC reported. Ukraine had accused Washington of halting intelligence sharing on Russian strikes, which the U.S. called “scandalous.” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that the sharing had resumed. For background, see our report on Trump’s comments on Ukraine’s leadership and the diesel deal and on Ukraine’s latest estimate of Russian missile stocks.

“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, according to NBC News. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”

For a closer look at the release terms, Hubbard’s 2024 conviction and what Witkoff and Putin said on camera, read Inside the Hubbard Release: No Swap, Peace Papers and Putin’s Offers to Witkoff.

Additional details

Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev greeted Witkoff at the airport and was due to join the talks, along with Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov, NBC News reported. Jared Kushner was expected to join virtually. Some earlier releases of Americans held in Russia were obtained through prisoner exchanges.

Featured image: Constantine Palace, Strelna. Photo: Steven Pavlov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• BBC News: US citizen Stephen Hubbard freed by Russia and ‘on his way home’, Trump says
• CBS News: U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard released by Russia after 4 years in jail
• NBC News: Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard, 74, as Trump envoy meets with Putin
• The Wall Street Journal: Russia releases captured American
• AP: Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard after over 4 years in prison