Russia released retired Michigan teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, on Wednesday, handing President Trump a clean diplomatic win with zero concessions made to Moscow. Hubbard had been sitting in a Russian prison since 2022 on charges, which he denies, of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
Trump wasted no time posting the news on Truth Social. “Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return, an unprecedented situation for Russia,” he wrote. The guy literally got an American freed from Putin’s grip for free. Let that sink in.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was in St. Petersburg meeting with Putin when the release happened, and he was there at Pulkovo airport when Hubbard walked out smiling in a green jacket. Witkoff told Putin directly, “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir.” Hubbard’s release and peace talks say that Jared Kushner was expected to join the broader peace discussions virtually, as the Trump team keeps pushing hard for a deal to end the war.
Hubbard’s lawyer, Martin De Luca, told NBC News he spoke with his client as Hubbard was boarding a plane home to the U.S. “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.” Hard to argue with that result.
Trump said he personally asked Putin in a phone call last week to let Hubbard go. The Kremlin called it a goodwill gesture. Hubbard’s family released a statement thanking “President Trump and his team for opening the dialog with Russia which led to this joyful day,” adding that their family could “attest that there are wonderful blessings to be found along the hard road to peace.” The State Department had designated Hubbard as the last American wrongfully detained in Russia.
On the broader peace front, Witkoff told Putin that “groundwork” had been laid to end the fighting and brought documents outlining possible deal frameworks. Russia said it’s ready to resume trilateral talks with the U.S. and Ukraine starting in mid-November. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News he’d support talks involving himself, Trump, and Putin. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Oslo talks with European and Ukrainian leaders “positive,” though he said “nothing unexpected” came out of them. That’s diplomat-speak for “we’re still working on it.”
Naturally, because Trump got this done, Democrats and their yapping hyenas in the media complained:
President Trump is directly tying waiving Russian sanctions to the release of the freed American Stephen Hubbard, despite denying he gave anything to Putin. https://t.co/TUxcvodPuF
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 21, 2026
While I am pleased that Russia finally released Stephen Hubbard, it is important to note that he never should have been jailed in the first place.
Calling the war criminal Vladimir Putin a “humanitarian” is a disgrace to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians that Putin has killed as part of his brutal war.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) October 21, 2026
Meanwhile, Trump explained:
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.
( TS: Oct 21 2026, 6:49 AM ET )????????????????????????????????????????????
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) October 21, 2026
Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia earlier this month and waived new sanctions on Moscow, drawing criticism from both parties. He fired back Wednesday, saying the negotiations to free Hubbard “would have come to a complete and total halt” if he hadn’t waived those sanctions. Whether the critics want to admit it or not, a 74-year-old American teacher is on a plane home tonight instead of rotting in a Russian cell.
Hubbard lands in the U.S. tonight, where his family will be waiting. As for the peace talks, Russia says it’s open to trilateral discussions from mid-November, and even a possible three-way summit with U.S. and Chinese leaders at the APEC summit in Shenzhen is reportedly “not rejected” by any of the capitals involved. Leave it to Trump to get a prisoner home for free and keep a peace deal on the table at the same time, all while Democrats are still trying to figure out how to take credit for none of it.
