US citizen Stephen Hubbard freed by Russia and 'on his way home', Trump says
The former teacher has been released without any "swap" required, according to the president.
Russia has agreed to release a 74-year-old American citizen who was jailed for allegedly fighting on behalf of Ukraine.
Stephen Hubbard has been taken to Pulkovo Airport, Putin said during talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg, according to state media.
President Trump said Hubbard was "on his way back home" and "there was no 'swap' necessary for this release".
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.
Writing on social media after Russian state media reported the release, Trump said it had followed a request he "made directly" to Putin last week.
"There was no "swap" necessary for this release," Trump said.
The US State Department had previously classified Hubbard as "wrongfully detained" and Trump had suggested on Tuesday that his release may be imminent.
"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.
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 infuriated Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and triggered a tumultuous few weeks of deteriorating relations, during which Trump suspended several Russian sanctions and said it was time for Ukraine to elect a new leader.
Kyiv meanwhile accused Washington of halting intelligence sharing on deadly Russian strikes, causing Ukrainians to lose their lives - an allegation Washington rejected as "scandalous".
The Ukrainian president said on Tuesday that such information sharing had resumed, following talks with Witkoff in Oslo described by the US as "positive".
During Wednesday's meeting in St Petersburg, Witkoff was filmed by Russian TV saying the diesel 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 that happened," he told Putin.
"I know [President Trump] is deeply grateful for it."
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