President Vladimir Putin says Russia has agreed to release a 74-year-old American citizen who was jailed for allegedly fighting on behalf of Ukraine, state media is reporting.
Stephen Hubbard has been taken to Pulkovo Airport, Putin said, during talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg, reports BBC online.
Hubbard, a former teacher originally from Michigan, was sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony in 2024.
Prosecutors had accused him of serving in a defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum when he was captured by Russian forces, shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years earlier.
The US State Department had previously classified Hubbard as “wrongfully detained”, and on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that he raised his case with Putin.
“Watch what happens,” Trump told reporters, “we have been focused on Hubbard”.
CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, reported that Hubbard had been in poor health and was expected to be flown to Texas for treatment.
The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.
Russian state media reported that Witkoff had thanked Putin for Hubbard’s release and, on Trump’s behalf, for the deal struck with Washington earlier this month to import Russian diesel.
The first shipment under the agreement will leave Russia “in two to three days”, Putin said during the meeting, as quoted by state news agency TASS.
The diesel deal has infuriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and seen diplomatic relations between Kyiv and Washington further deteriorate.
During Wednesday’s meeting in St Petersburg, Witkoff was filmed by Russian TV saying the deal was an example to Ukraine of what could be achieved by working together.
“Your decision to remove export controls on diesel oil from Russia, not just to the US but also to the world at large in the midst of an economic shock, I think that was really important that it happened,” he said.
“I know [President Trump] is deeply grateful for it.”
