Russia has released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two countries as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal to end Moscow’s war.
The jet carrying Hubbard touched down at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas at approximately 10:49 p.m. local time Wednesday (11:49 p.m. ET), footage at the base showed.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin for Hubbard’s release as they held peace talks early Wednesday in St. Petersburg. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” Witkoff said.
The U.S. has courted the Kremlin for weeks, and the release of Hubbard — a Michigan native detained in Ukraine in 2022 — will give President Donald Trump a victory to tout after backlash at home and abroad for his tilt away from Kyiv in the conflict.
Son of Stephen Hubbard says 'no evidence' his father was a mercenary
Trump hailed the news, telling reporters late Wednesday that Hubbard would visit the White House “over the next day or so.”
Earlier, Trump said on Truth Social that Hubbard was “on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”
Trump said he directly asked Putin in a phone call last week to release Hubbard, who was being held on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, which he denies. He was the last American designated as wrongfully detained in Russia by the State Department.
The Kremlin said the move was a goodwill gesture.
Hubbard’s family in a statement thanked “President Trump and his team for opening the dialog with Russia which led to this joyful day. Our family can attest that there are wonderful blessings to be found along the hard road to peace.”
Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov later said Hubbard was handed over to Witkoff at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport.
In a video from Russian state news agency RIA, Hubbard wears a green jacket and smiles as he meets Witkoff. “Thank you very much for all your efforts,” he tells Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent Hubbard “blessings,” Witkoff tells him, adding, “From today, it’s a new life.”
Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer, said in a phone interview Wednesday that he spoke with Hubbard as he was “getting ready to take off” on a plane bound for the U.S. and that his client was overjoyed to be released.
“He was overwhelmed with joy,” De Luca said. “The No. 1 thing he was excited about was seeing his children and family, who will be waiting for him when he arrives in the U.S. tonight. He was in a fragile state, so it wasn’t a long conversation, but he’s OK, which is what’s important.”
U.S. peace push
The meeting between Putin and Witkoff, which Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to join virtually, came after the American negotiators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals at the talks, a U.S. official told NBC News, adding that “meaningful progress” was made as the Trump administration intensifies its peace push.
Ushakov said Wednesday that Russia is ready to resume trilateral talks with the U.S. and Ukraine from mid-November concerning “the establishment of a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict.”
Zelenskyy told Fox News on Wednesday that he would support talks involving himself, Trump and Putin, as well as direct Ukraine-Russia talks.
Meanwhile, Ushakov said a separate proposed meeting of leaders from Russia, China and the U.S. during next month’s APEC summit in Shenzhen is “not rejected by any of the capitals.”
He said that Russia raised “several practical considerations regarding the content of possible trilateral talks” but that “if circumstances are favorable, they, our Chinese friends, will certainly include this meeting in the program of events.”
Diplomacy has made little headway for months, and the renewed American effort has drawn widespread criticism as Trump announced a series of moves to bolster Russia while Ukraine accused the U.S. of withdrawing crucial support.
“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, intensifying a pressure campaign that has fueled concern the U.S. is no longer committed to Kyiv’s defense against the Russian invasion.
“We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,” Trump said.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that a deal to end the war might be close.
“We’re negotiating with Russia right now on Ukraine,” he said. “We are maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time.”
Witkoff told Putin on Wednesday that “groundwork” had been laid to end the fighting and that he had brought documents outlining approaches to a possible deal.
Zelenskyy said a potential trilateral leaders’ meeting was “one of the important ideas” raised in Oslo after Tuesday’s talks, which also included the leaders of Norway and Finland.
Putin has so far insisted that any meeting with Zelenskyy could happen only once a deal is finalized and take place in Moscow, a nonstarter for Ukraine. The Kremlin has also shown little sign of shifting from its hard-line demands, which include seizing Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region.
Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia this month and waived new sanctions on Moscow, drawing bipartisan criticism. He claimed Wednesday that negotiations to free Hubbard “would have come to a complete and total halt” had he not waived the sanctions.
Kyiv, meanwhile, said that it received no warning about at least three major Russian attacks and that restrictions on Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite service continue to hamper its aerial defenses and battlefield operations.
After the talks with Witkoff on Tuesday, Zelenskyy told reporters the recent issues with intelligence sharing had been resolved.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks in Oslo “positive” but said “nothing unexpected” came out of them.
Rubio once again denied that the White House was behind any slowdown to Ukraine’s use of the internet service, saying it was an issue for Musk and SpaceX. Musk said last week that any decision was down to Trump.
Deadly Russian attacks continued to hit Ukraine, meanwhile, with at least nine civilians killed across the country Wednesday as Moscow ramps up its strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of winter.
Authorities in Russia’s border Bryansk region said Wednesday that one person was killed in a Ukrainian strike.
