Putin says US citizen Stephen Hubbard freed

SAINT PETERSBURG

This photograph shows destroyed cars among debris in the courtyard of a residential building following a drone attack in Kiev on October 21, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP Photo)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Oct. 21 the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American taken captive by Russian forces years ago in Ukraine, during a meeting with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, news agencies reported.

Putin had said that Hubbard was at Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg, Russian news agencies reported, adding that Witkoff, who was meeting with the Russian president in the city, had thanked Putin for the release.

Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s, was sentenced in a closed trial in October 2024 to nearly seven years in prison for “mercenary work” on behalf of Ukraine, a charge he denies.

Oct. 21's announcement came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy met to brief Putin on his meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo a day earlier, which Witkoff described as “productive.”

Trump had said on Oct. 20 that he had asked Putin for Hubbard’s release.

“I’ve been talking to him at length. I’ve asked him to release him. Let’s see what happens,” Trump told journalists in Washington.

On Oct. 21, Witkoff said Trump and “our whole nation sends their thanks because of Stephen Hubbard,” calling Putin a “humanitarian.”

He also said he had brought “ideas” for a possible Ukraine peace deal to his meeting with Putin.

“We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you’ll read that at your leisure,” Witkoff told Putin in remarks broadcast by Russian state television.

Rubio said in Mumbai on Oct. 21 that talks between Witkoff and Zelensky in Oslo had been “positive.”

Rubio also insisted the White House had no prior knowledge of a slowdown in Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite communications used by Ukraine to support battlefield operations.

“The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk,” Rubio said.

“That’s a private company; the president doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything. I’m telling you, there was no foreknowledge.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has denied ordering a reduction in speeds on Starshield after Musk, whose company SpaceX developed it, said the order could only have come from the White
House.

But the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 20 that it was indeed Musk who ordered the slowdown in the military-grade version of Starlink.

Rubio said Washington was “no longer going to be defensive about this topic.”

“If it were not for the assistance of the United States, including under the Trump administration, there would be no Ukraine right now,” he said.

“Ukraine as a sovereign state would not exist.”