Who is Stephen Hubbard, the retired American teacher freed by Russia?

Stephen James Hubbard, a retired American teacher, was released by Russia on Wednesday after nearly five years in detention in the midst of an apparent warming of ties between Washington and Moscow.

The 74-year-old from Michigan had been living in eastern Ukraine for years when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. He was detained two months into the war as Russia captured swaths of Ukrainian territory. Two years later, he was convicted by a Russian court of serving as a mercenary.

The news of his release came out of a meeting between President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, where they were due to discuss an end to the Ukraine war.

Witkoff thanked Putin for freeing Hubbard during their on-camera talks, and Putin said the American was at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, suggesting his return to the U.S. could be imminent. Witkoff later met with Hubbard at an undisclosed location.

In video from Russian state news agency Ria, Hubbard can be seen wearing a green jacket and smiling. “Thank you very much for all your efforts,” the freed American tells Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent Hubbard “blessings,” Witkoff tells him, adding “from today, it’s a new life.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin released Hubbard “on humanitarian grounds,” though Russia did not provide more details.

Hubbard’s family acknowledged both Trump’s and Putin’s roles in securing his release.

“We have been gravely concerned for his safety and health since his 2022 detention,” Hubbard’s son, the Rev. Joseph Coleman, who is an Orthodox priest, said in a statement on behalf of the family. “Never once did we waver as we prayed for success in these negotiations, and we must acknowledge that this humanitarian move by President Putin in this matter is deeply appreciated,” the statement said.

Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer, said in a separate statement that his client was the only American in Russia currently designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained. His firm appealed for privacy “as Stephen recovers and reconnects with the people who love him.”

“Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, shortly after Witkoff announced Hubbard’s release. “The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”

There was no “swap” necessary for this release, Trump added, though in a later post he said “those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt” had the U.S. gone ahead with sanctions that he waived last week.

Hubbard was sentenced in a closed-door trial in 2024, with very little information about his case reported by Russian state media.

At the time, Russian prosecutors alleged that as the Kremlin launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022, Hubbard voluntarily joined a territorial defense battalion in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. The prosecutors said Hubbard took part in the war in Ukraine and regularly received financial compensation before his detention in April 2022 as advancing Russian forces captured the city.

“He was aware of the unlawful nature of his actions, yet — with the deliberate intent of personal enrichment — he carried out the orders of his superiors, which entailed direct participation in combat operations on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against service members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” according to Russia’s prosecutor general’s office.

Russian state media reported he pleaded guilty to the charges. ​But De Luca previously told Reuters that Hubbard had told him the ​charges against him were false and ​that ⁠he was not in any combat or military unit.

The New York Times reported last year that Patricia Hubbard Fox, Hubbard’s sister, disputes that he fought for Ukraine, as do three former Ukrainian prisoners of war held with Hubbard.

The paper also cited Fox as saying that her brother had a master’s degree in English, and had lived in Japan and Cyprus before moving to eastern Ukraine, where he had a Ukrainian partner. Fox also said that Hubbard taught English online when he needed money, and did not speak either Ukrainian or Russian.

Izyum, where Fox said her brother settled, was occupied by Russia for six months in 2022, but was later recaptured by Ukraine in a major counteroffensive. It is currently held by Ukraine and is not part of the four Ukrainian oblasts Russia has illegally annexed.

Hubbard’s release from Russian custody comes just months after former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, who spent more than four years in a Russian prison, was set free in August.

Washington has accused Moscow of arbitrarily detaining American citizens in Russia for years, with their cases often used to negotiate prisoner swaps, including for state-backed intelligence operatives, detained around the world.

In some of the more high-profile cases, U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich was released in a swap in 2024, alongside Marine veteran Paul Whelan — both had been jailed on espionage charges. WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained on drug charges in 2022, was freed after the Biden administration negotiated her release in exchange for a Russian arms dealer.