Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher from Michigan, is back on U.S. soil after more than four years in Russian custody. His plane touched down in San Antonio late Oct. 21, hours after Russia freed him, President Donald Trump told reporters, according to CBS News.
The Stephen Hubbard release was announced during a meeting in St. Petersburg between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin, CBS News reported. Hubbard was the only American held by Russia whom Washington had designated as wrongfully detained, according to Reuters.
From eastern Ukraine to a Russian penal colony
Russian forces detained Hubbard in April 2022 in Izyum, the eastern Ukrainian city where he lived, weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Reuters reported. Russian prosecutors accused him of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine and manning a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
His family has rejected the charges all along. Martin De Luca, Hubbard’s U.S.-based attorney, told CBS News his legal team found no evidence Hubbard had served in the Ukrainian military.
After a closed-door trial, a Moscow court sentenced Hubbard in October 2024 to six years and 10 months in a penal colony. He walked out after serving a little more than four of those years. The State Department designated him wrongfully detained in January 2025.
Once back in the U.S., Hubbard was taken to a military facility in San Antonio for a medical evaluation, routine for Americans freed from detention abroad. A U.S. official told CNN he would also take part in a program to help him readjust.
A son’s first wish
Hubbard’s son, the Rev. Joseph Coleman, is a Greek Orthodox priest who lives in Cyprus. He spoke with his father in a brief phone call before Hubbard left St. Petersburg and told CBS News his father sounded better than during their last conversation in May 2025.
Coleman said he wants to see his father’s condition for himself. “I want to embrace him as a son embraces his father. I want to personally assess his health to make sure he’s well,” he told CBS News.
Coleman added that he planned to give his father room to adjust to freedom.
Trump ties the release to sanctions
Trump said Putin agreed to free Hubbard at his request and that no prisoner swap was involved. He also said Hubbard would not have come home had his administration not stopped new sanctions against Russia from taking effect the week before, CBS News reported. That sanctions decision drew criticism from members of Congress in both parties.
Speaking to reporters late Oct. 21, Trump acknowledged the toll of Hubbard’s long detention. “He’s obviously just got out of prison,” Trump said. “He was there for a long time.”
What’s next
Trump said Hubbard would visit the White House “in the next day or so.” Hubbard has not yet shared his own account of his years in custody.
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