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. Hubbard, 74, of 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, a Russian court convicted him of serving as a mercenary. The jet carrying Hubbard touched down at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, at about 10:49 p.m. Wednesday (11:49 p.m. ET), video at the base showed. 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, when they were due to discuss an end to the Ukraine war. Witkoff thanked Putin for freeing Hubbard during their on-camera talks. He later met Hubbard in St. Petersburg before he boarded a flight back to the United States. In a video from the Russian state news agency RIA, Hubbard is smiling 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.” During the meeting, Witkoff said on X, Trump “called Stephen to check on him and reaffirm his unwavering commitment to bringing all Americans wrongfully detained home.” Witkoff shared an image of Hubbard on a plane next to the American flag and several other people, writing that he was “headed back home to his family.” Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s lawyer, said in a phone interview Wednesday that he had spoken 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.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin released Hubbard “on humanitarian grounds.” Russia did not provide more details. Hubbard’s family acknowledged 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, Joseph Coleman, 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. Coleman, a Greek Orthodox priest who lives in Cyprus, wrote Putin “a long and very emotional letter” last month, De Luca said. In the letter, Coleman said Hubbard’s family “feared he would die without ever seeing his kids or grandchildren,” De Luca said. Coleman also outlined his father’s background and family history and emphasized his faith. NBC News’ Garrett Haake spoke Wednesday with Coleman, who again thanked Putin and Trump for his father’s release. Coleman said it was his “understanding” that Putin had read his letter. Asked about the Russian accusation that his father was a mercenary fighting for Ukraine, Coleman replied, “And I say the moon is made out of cheese.” “There’s no evidence to that effect,” he added. Coleman said his father is not political and may have been targeted because of his American nationality. “I think my father was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “I think it served the interests of low-level military men to say, ‘Hey, we got this American.’ It’s a trophy.” Coleman said his father had lived with him in Cyprus for a time before he decided to move to Ukraine to live with his girlfriend for economic reasons. Coleman had only a brief conversation with his father while he was on the tarmac in Russia. “He was just looking forward to seeing family,” Coleman said. Trump cheered Hubbard’s return, framing it as a demonstration of the Kremlin’s “respect” for its American counterparts. “Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,” Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social, 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 the 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 Ukraine war and regularly received financial compensation before he was detained 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 that he pleaded guilty. Following Hubbard’s release Wednesday, De Luca stood by his previous statements that Hubbard had told him that the charges were false and that he was not part of 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 her brother had a master’s degree in English and had lived in Japan and Cyprus before he moved to eastern Ukraine, where he had a Ukrainian partner. Fox also said Hubbard taught English online when he needed money and did not speak either Ukrainian or Russian. Russia occupied Izyum, where Fox said her brother settled, for six months in 2022, but Ukraine later recaptured it in a major counteroffensive. It is currently held by Ukraine and is not part of the four Ukrainian oblasts Russia has illegally annexed. Hubbard was released from Russian custody 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 exchanges for state-backed intelligence operatives detained around the world. In some of the higher-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. John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the senior director of the Atlantic Council think tank’s Eurasia Center, said that despite the depiction of Hubbard’s release, “it was not a freebie. It was not a gift to the United States.” He told NBC News’ “Here’s the Scoop” podcast that it came after the release of a prominent Russian war blogger, Mikhail Zvinchuk, who was detained in Montenegro in October and freed after the U.S. opted not to extradite him. “Russia’s got back a bad guy who we should have taken into custody, and we got back an American who was innocent. That’s the pattern,” he said. Meanwhile, on the day Hubbard was released, Russia said it had detained a German national accused of serving in the Ukrainian army. Russia’s Federal Security Service did not release the man’s name or any other identifying details and did not say where or when he was taken into custody.