Stephen Hubbard is back on U.S. soil after more than four years in Russian custody, freed at President Trump’s direct request to Vladimir Putin, with no prisoner swap required.
President Trump confirmed Wednesday that Russia had released U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard, the 74-year-old Michigan native and retired school teacher who had been the last American formally declared wrongfully detained by the State Department. Hubbard touched down in the United States Wednesday night and is expected to receive treatment at a military hospital in Texas.
The release was announced during a meeting in St. Petersburg between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian state news agencies, citing Putin, said Hubbard was at Pulkovo Airport as the deal moved forward. Trump said the outcome came after a direct telephone request he made to Putin last week, and that America gave nothing in return.
In a Truth Social post early Wednesday, Trump wrote that Hubbard “was just released from prison, at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week.” He said Russia acted “out of respect for President Trump,” that the United States “was not required to give anything in return, an unprecedented situation for Russia,” and that “there was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release.”
Witkoff delivered the thanks in person. Video from the Constantine Palace meeting captured the envoy telling Putin the American people were grateful for the decision that sent Hubbard back to his family. The New York Post reported Hubbard had spent more than four years imprisoned on mercenary charges tied to Ukraine and was flying home for medical care as the last wrongfully detained American freed from Russia.
Witkoff told Putin:
"I wanted to thank you very much. The president sends his thanks. Our whole nation sends it's thanks,"
He added:
"Because of you, he's going home to his family."
Witkoff also praised the Russian leader’s decision in humanitarian terms, saying, “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian, you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.” Trump later shared a photo of Hubbard on a plane with U.S. officials after the release and said the Michigan man would visit the White House “in the next day or so.”
Hubbard, a veteran of the U.S. National Guard and Air Force, was captured in Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russian authorities accused him of manning a checkpoint for mercenaries. In 2024 he was sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony. By the time of his release he was in poor health.
That kind of results-first diplomacy has marked other recent White House moves, including when Trump launched diesel relief for farmers squeezed by high fuel costs.
The release came five days after the Trump administration announced it would waive some sanctions on Russia just before they were due to take effect. On the White House South Lawn Wednesday afternoon, Trump tied that decision directly to Hubbard’s freedom and rejected critics who had demanded the sanctions move forward on the original schedule.
Trump told reporters:
"We were in the midst of negotiating. And a lot of stupid people said, and people that don't know how life works, they said, 'Why aren't you putting Russia sanctions and all this' in the midst of a negotiation to try to get a long-term hostage back from Russia. If I would have done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back."
In a follow-up Truth Social post, Trump said “numerous people” who had pushed for the sanctions to hit as planned later “called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn't know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S.” He added that if the sanctions had been placed, “certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”
Members of Congress, including some Republicans, had criticized the sanctions waiver harshly. Trump’s answer was blunt: the hostage came home. CBS News reported the White House stopped the new sanctions from taking effect last week while Witkoff and other officials worked talks in Russia focused on the Ukraine war.
Similar hard-nosed dealmaking showed up when Trump secured a Russian diesel supply arrangement aimed at easing costs for American drivers and businesses.
Hubbard’s case did not stand alone. Former Marine Robert Gilman was freed from Russian custody in August after his health deteriorated to a life-threatening condition; he had spent more than four years imprisoned and received a humanitarian pardon following a direct appeal by Trump to Putin. American school teacher Marc Fogel was released by Russia early last year. In 2024, journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan were among those freed in a complicated multi-country prisoner swap.
Fox News carried Trump’s Truth Social account of the latest win, noting Hubbard had been “taken four years ago by Russia during the Biden Administration” and quoting the president’s welcome: “Welcome home Stephen, it’s great to have you back.” The same reporting underscored that Trump secured the release through a direct request to Putin with no U.S. concessions or swap.
Attorney Martin DeLuca, representing Hubbard’s interests, framed the result as proof that steady pressure works. Just The News reported DeLuca’s assessment that “Stephen Hubbard’s freedom is a dividend earned along the hard road to peace,” and that “two Americans have now come home from Russia on humanitarian grounds in ten weeks. These are tangible results of sustained diplomacy.” The outlet also noted Hubbard was the oldest American held in Russia and credited work by Trump, Witkoff, and Jared Kushner.
Public reaction to Trump’s streak of concrete wins has been hard to miss, even among some who once fled the country after his victory and later second-guessed the move.
As many as 10 other Americans, including dual nationals, remain in Russian custody. Among them is Aleksandr Antonov, arrested last year and sentenced to six years. His family argues he is a U.S. citizen and has urged the State Department to prioritize his case; the department has not declared him wrongfully detained, and internal debate over that status was reported earlier this year.
The State Department still maintains a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Russia. Last year the Trump administration established a “state sponsors of wrongful detention” designation and later applied it to Iran in February and Afghanistan in March. It has not applied that label to Russia.
Hubbard’s return closes the formal wrongful-detention list for Americans in Russia, at least for now. Trump said while returning from a South Carolina rally that the freed teacher would come to the White House soon. For a 74-year-old retired educator who spent years in a Russian penal system after a capture in wartime Ukraine, the first priority is medical care in Texas.
Trump has shown he will name names and draw hard lines when he believes U.S. interests demand it, as when he warned Ilhan Omar could face jail or deportation over conduct he called a disgrace.
The core facts are straightforward. A U.S. citizen held more than four years is free. The president says he asked Putin directly, got a yes, and paid no swap price. Critics of the sanctions pause got an answer in the form of an American on a plane home. Other families are still waiting. The record now includes one more name crossed off the wrongful-detention list because the White House treated the negotiation as a negotiation, and finished it.
Americans locked up overseas need a president who will pick up the phone, hold the line on leverage, and bring them home. Hubbard’s return shows what that looks like when it works.