Russia has released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher who had been held since 2022, Russian state media reported on Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin announced the release during his talks in St Petersburg with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying Hubbard had been taken to Pulkovo Airport, the BBC reported, citing Russian state media. Witkoff thanked Putin for the release, according to the Associated Press.

Hubbard, originally from Michigan, had lived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum since 2014. Russian forces captured him in 2022, and in 2024 he was sentenced to nearly seven years in a penal colony. Russian prosecutors alleged that he had served in a Ukrainian defence unit in Izyum after signing a contract for about $1,000 a month — an allegation his sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, has called a lie, and which his family has repeatedly denied, CNN reported.

The United States had designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained, and President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had raised Hubbard's case with Putin, according to Reuters and AP reporting. A US official had said before Witkoff's trip that the visit was expected to include efforts to seek Hubbard's release. The United States did not immediately confirm the release on Wednesday, and CNN said it had asked the US State Department for comment.

The announcement came at the start of Witkoff's meeting with Putin, a day after the envoy held talks in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Washington described as positive, as the Trump administration pushes for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. The release is the latest in a series of American detainees freed by Russia — former US Marine Robert Gilman was released in August on humanitarian grounds. Sources: BBC (Oct 21, citing Russian state media); Associated Press via syndication (Oct 21); CNN (Oct 21); Reuters via syndication (Oct 21).