On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, Russia freed the American Stephen Hubbard, 74, a retired teacher from Michigan. The announcement came during Vladimir Putin’s meeting in St Petersburg with US envoy Steve Witkoff. Putin said, as carried by state television, that Hubbard was at Pulkovo airport. This is a release, not an announced prisoner swap and not a new sentence.

Hubbard had been held for more than four years. In 2024 a Moscow court, in a closed trial, sentenced him to almost seven years in a penal colony, accusing him of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. His family disputes his guilt. The State Department had classed him as wrongfully detained; CBS writes that he was the last American with that label in Russia. The two readings — a Russian sentence versus wrongful detention — remain side by side.

On Tuesday, at the White House, Donald Trump said he had discussed the case with Putin. “Watch what happens, we have been focused on Hubbard.” NBC News also notes a call last week in which he had asked for the release. Witkoff thanked Putin on Wednesday and called him, in turn, a “humanitarian.” That is not the same as a published swap deal.

CBS, cited by the BBC, writes that Hubbard is in poor health and was expected to be flown to Texas, to a military hospital. That is a press expectation, not confirmation that he has landed. It is not clear, CBS writes, what Washington offered, if anything, in return.

In August Russia had freed the American Robert Gilman after a humanitarian request from Trump. The 2024 swaps that included Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were another mechanism, involving several countries. Wednesday’s release is not announced as such a package.

The St Petersburg meeting is about the war in Ukraine; Hubbard is a separate point on the same day. It is not a new sentence, not a published swap, and it does not reopen the US–allies intelligence-sharing file.

Image: Pulkovo airport, St Petersburg, 31 December 2018, AndreyFilippov.com, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The airport in 2018, not Hubbard on Wednesday.

Sources consulted: Russia frees 74-year-old American Stephen Hubbard after visit from Trump envoy — CNN; Russia frees US citizen Stephen Hubbard, state media reports — BBC; Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard, 74, as Trump envoy meets with Putin — NBC News.