Stephen Hubbard had endured years in Russian custody before he allowed himself to believe the car leaving Moscow was taking him towards freedom. At the White House on Friday, the 74-year-old retired English teacher told President Donald Trump: “I wouldn't have lasted another year.”
Hubbard said he had been through repeated false hopes. He said he first thought his release might be genuine when he saw the car and Russians accompanying him out of prison. On the drive to St Petersburg, he recalled telling himself: “I'm really going somewhere.”
Trump told Hubbard that he was “somebody I wanted to get back.” The president said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call to free him.
Hubbard, from Big Rapids, Michigan, is a US Air Force and National Guard veteran who spent decades travelling and teaching English. He retired to Cyprus in 2012, then moved to the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum in 2014.
He was living in Izyum when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces captured him in occupied eastern Ukraine two months later.
Russian prosecutors said Hubbard had joined the Ukrainian military after the invasion. His legal team denied that accusation and said he had taken no part in military activity. A Kharkiv regional police official said Hubbard had no connections to Ukraine's armed forces or its territorial defence.
Hubbard's sister and another relative told Reuters that he held pro-Russian views and that, at his age, they considered it unlikely he had taken up arms.
After a closed trial in 2024, a Russian court sentenced Hubbard to nearly seven years in prison on charges of fighting as a mercenary. He became the first American known to be convicted of fighting as a mercenary in the war.
The Biden administration designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained. By last year, he was the only American still held in Russia with that designation.
Hubbard recalled dodging Ukrainian shells during his initial detention near the front lines. A Ukrainian held with him told AFP that Hubbard was tortured in custody.
His son, Joseph Coleman, joined him for the White House meeting. Coleman said he had feared his father would die in Russia; after the release, he said Hubbard was in good spirits and grateful to be out, though he did not discuss his time in prison.
Martin De Luca, Hubbard's lawyer, said the family had feared the worst. “They thought they weren't going to see him again alive, and Stephen didn't think he was going to come out of there alive,” De Luca said.
Less than two weeks before Hubbard's release, Trump announced he was waiving US sanctions on Russian diesel.
On 21 October, Witkoff met Putin in St Petersburg and announced Hubbard's release. Putin told Witkoff that Hubbard was already waiting at Pulkovo airport.
Witkoff met Hubbard at the airport on Wednesday, where video showed the American alongside the envoy and the Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev. Witkoff told Hubbard that Putin “sends you blessings and wishes you good things.”
Trump said the US did not have to release anyone in return for Hubbard's freedom.
Hubbard is now at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he will take part in a programme intended to support his reacclimation after detention in Russia.
Comments (0)