President Trump Issues Statement After Russia Releases Imprisoned American Teacher

Russia has released Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher who had been imprisoned on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. https://t.co/KgOYTRWbbq

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 21, 2026

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Another Truth Social post issued by Trump added, “Numerous people, who requested that sanctions be immediately imposed on Russia, have called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn’t know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S. If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”

The president added in another post, “Biden should have done the Hubbard release long ago! What a difference a President makes!”

Hubbard, a Michigan man, was sentenced in 2024 to almost seven years imprisonment. Prosecutors said he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and that he fought alongside them until being captured two months later.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told Russian President Vladimir Putin of Hubbard during a Wednesday meeting that “because of you, he’s going home to his family.”

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Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan, was released from a Russian prison more than four years after he was seized from his home in eastern Ukraine and accused of fighting as a mercenary for Kyiv.

The Biden administration declared Hubbard wrongfully… pic.twitter.com/6BVyJ2CnEO

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 21, 2026

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Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen who was jailed in Russia for more than four years after being accused of fighting for Ukraine, has been released from custody.

During a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday,… pic.twitter.com/sZBamYuTWX

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 21, 2026

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Mr. Witkoff’s remarks came at the start of talks in St. Petersburg, where the U.S. envoy had come to discuss new variants of a proposed plan to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

He told Mr. Putin he had “brought some papers” with “some ideas about the different elements of some sort of peace deal,” saying that the Russian leader could “read that at your leisure later.” The men met for approximately three hours.

Mr. Trump had telegraphed that he had sought Mr. Hubbard’s release, talking to reporters about it on Tuesday, when the former teacher was still in captivity. But Mr. Trump didn’t mention that Mr. Hubbard was being held because Mr. Putin’s government had sought to take American prisoners for leverage.

As Mr. Putin and Mr. Witkoff were meeting, though, Russia’s security services announced the arrest of a German citizen on charges similar to Mr. Hubbard’s.

In recent days, as Mr. Hubbard was moved out of a penal colony and prepared for release, it became clear that his value to Mr. Putin had changed. He was now more valuable to the Russian leader as a symbol of the renewed relationship with the U.S. president than as a pawn in negotiations.

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