Russia has released an elderly American man who was captured in Ukraine and sentenced for being a mercenary. Donald Trump claimed this was the result of his direct appeal to Vladimir Putin.
Foreign news agencies reported on 21 Oct 2026 that Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American teacher who had been detained and sentenced to nearly seven years for joining Ukraine's self-defense forces in the city of Izyum before his capture in early 2022.
President Donald Trump posted about the release, claiming it was due to his direct request to Russian President Vladimir Putin the previous week, and that the release occurred without a prisoner exchange.
Trump also defended his decision to suspend sanctions on Russia, saying, “If sanctions had been imposed,” negotiations for Hubbard’s release “would have completely broken down.”
At the start of a meeting with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wittkoff on Wednesday, Putin said Stephen Hubbard had been taken to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg to prepare for his return to the U.S., showing footage of Hubbard thanking Wittkoff during a prior meeting.
Wittkoff traveled to meet Putin in Saint Petersburg following discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo on Tuesday. He presented a new peace proposal developed in Oslo to revive trilateral peace talks, but Putin has not yet indicated whether he will accept it.
During a meeting lasting over three hours, both sides also discussed the situation in Iran, the possibility of holding talks in China, and economic cooperation such as exporting Russian chemical fertilizers to the U.S. market.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky said any progress will depend on whether the U.S. hears new peace proposals from Russia, after Ukraine experienced a tense period in relations with the U.S., including the diesel oil import deal with Russia and suspension of intelligence sharing.
Wittkoff also thanked Putin for the agreement to export Russian diesel oil to the U.S., with Putin stating that the first shipment would begin within the next 2–3 days.
Stephen Hubbard spent 25 years working as an English teacher in Japan before moving to Cyprus, then settling in Izyum, eastern Ukraine, since 2014 with his Ukrainian partner. His family says he lived modestly on a monthly pension of about $300 and led a rather reclusive life.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces captured Izyum, and Hubbard was detained by Russian troops around April 2022.
In October 2024, a Moscow court held a closed trial and convicted Hubbard of being a “mercenary” fighting with Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, sentencing him to six years and ten months in prison.
Russian prosecutors alleged he contracted and received payment for service, including at a military checkpoint. However, his family and sister strongly denied these accusations, stating that Hubbard was elderly and unlikely to take up arms, and that he even held views supportive of Russia.
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Source:bbc