Putin frees retired US professor arrested in 2022. He's 74 years old

O president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced this Wednesday the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American professor who was arrested in the framework of the war in Ukraine, after being accused by Moscow of acting as a mercenary.

The announcement was made as part of the visit of the US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia. No further details were given on the situation, unless Hubbard was already at Pulkovo Airport, which serves the metropolis of St. Petersburg.

Note that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Tuesday that he had asked Putin to release this former professor from the state of Michigan.

“I talked to President Putin about Mr Hubbard. I talked to him long enough about it. I asked him to release him”, said the Republican, adding: “It’s time to bring Mr Hubbard back.”.

Hubbard was arrested in 2022 in the Ukrainian city of . 

The former professor pleaded guilty to accusations of having served as a mercenary in the Ukrainian army, according to what the Russian media had already mentioned – but Martin De Luca, the teacher's lawyer, had also told Reuters that the charges were false and that this man was not integrated into any military unit.

Hubbard had been sentenced to six years and ten months in prison in a closed trial held in October 2024. The arrest took place in April 2022, two months after the start of the war in Ukraine. The former teacher would have lived in Ukraine since 2014.

What does America say?

At the beginning of his meeting in St. Petersburg, the White House envoy thanked Putin for the release of Hubbard.

“Thanks to you, Hubbard will return home to his family,” Witkoff said during the meeting with Putin, which was broadcast live.

Steve Witkoff also stated that he brought “ideas” to a “peace agreement” between Russia and Ukraine.

“ We have brought some documents – in fact, some ideas about different elements of a possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine – which you can read when appropriate,” he said during opening statements from Russian public television.

Steve Witkoff, who met in Oslo on the eve with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, indicated that he came to Russia with the hope of discussing the resumption of the trilateral negotiations, adding that it would already be “important” the simple fact of addressing “what could be the next step” in the peace process.

The U.S. emissary also assessed that economic cooperation between Moscow and Washington “enlightens the possibilities for the future”, without further details.

Shortly before, Russian Deputy Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, announced the departure, on Thursday, of the first tanker carrying Russian diesel to the United States.

In early October, Trump had announced an agreement between Washington and Moscow for the supply of Russian diesel to the US market, suspending sanctions against Russia — a measure that attracted harsh criticism from Kyiv and his allies.