{"id":228383,"date":"2026-10-22T21:21:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T21:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/retired-american-teacher-imprisoned-by-russia-returns-to-u-s-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T21:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T21:21:05","slug":"retired-american-teacher-imprisoned-by-russia-returns-to-u-s-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/retired-american-teacher-imprisoned-by-russia-returns-to-u-s-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired American teacher imprisoned by Russia returns to U.S. – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

For You
Settings
news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Russia has released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard<\/a>, 74, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two countries as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal<\/a> to end Moscow\u2019s war against Ukraine.
The jet carrying Hubbard touched down at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, at about 10:49 p.m. Wednesday (11:49 p.m. ET), video at the base showed.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin for Hubbard\u2019s release as they held peace talks early Wednesday in St. Petersburg. \u201cYou talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,\u201d Witkoff said.
Lawmakers from both parties criticized Witkoff\u2019s use of the word \u201chumanitarian,\u201d<\/a> with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, saying Putin is \u201cthe aggressor in the war against Ukraine.\u201d
The U.S. has courted the Kremlin for weeks, and the release of Hubbard \u2014 a Michigan native detained in Ukraine in 2022 \u2014 will give President Donald Trump a victory to tout after backlash at home and abroad for his tilt away from Kyiv in the conflict.
Son of Stephen Hubbard says 'no evidence' his father was a mercenary
Trump hailed the news, telling reporters late Wednesday that Hubbard would visit the White House \u201cover the next day or so.\u201d
Earlier, Trump said on Truth Social that Hubbard was \u201con 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 \u2014 an unprecedented situation for Russia.\u201d
Trump said he directly asked Putin in a phone call last week to release Hubbard, who was being held on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, which he denies. He was the last American designated as wrongfully detained in Russia by the State Department.
The Kremlin said the move was a goodwill gesture.
Hubbard\u2019s family <\/strong>in a statement thanked \u201cPresident Trump and his team for opening the dialog with Russia which led to this joyful day. Our family can attest that there are wonderful blessings to be found along the hard road to peace.\u201d
Putin\u2019s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov later said Hubbard was handed over to Witkoff at St. Petersburg\u2019s Pulkovo Airport.
In a video from the Russian state news agency RIA, Hubbard wears a green jacket and is smiling as he meets Witkoff. \u201cThank you very much for all your efforts,\u201d he tells Witkoff as they shake hands. Putin sent Hubbard \u201cblessings,\u201d Witkoff tells him, adding, \u201cFrom today, it\u2019s a new life.\u201d
Martin De Luca, Hubbard\u2019s lawyer, said in a phone interview Wednesday that he spoke with Hubbard as he was \u201cgetting ready to take off\u201d on a plane bound for the U.S. and that his client was overjoyed to be released.
\u201cHe was overwhelmed with joy,\u201d De Luca said. \u201cThe 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. He was in a fragile state, so it wasn\u2019t a long conversation, but he\u2019s OK, which is what\u2019s important.\u201d
The meeting between Putin and Witkoff, which Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to join virtually, came after the American negotiators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals at the talks, a U.S. official told NBC News, adding that \u201cmeaningful progress\u201d was made as the Trump administration intensifies its peace push.
Ushakov said Wednesday that Russia is ready to resume trilateral talks with the U.S. and Ukraine from mid-November concerning \u201cthe establishment of a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict.\u201d
Zelenskyy told Fox News on Wednesday that he would support talks involving himself, Trump and Putin, as well as direct Ukraine-Russia talks.
Meanwhile, Ushakov said a separate proposed meeting of leaders from Russia, China and the U.S. during next month\u2019s APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, is \u201cnot rejected by any of the capitals.\u201d
He said that Russia raised \u201cseveral practical considerations regarding the content of possible trilateral talks\u201d but that \u201cif circumstances are favorable, they, our Chinese friends, will certainly include this meeting in the program of events.\u201d
Diplomacy has made little headway for months, and the renewed American effort has drawn widespread criticism as Trump announced a series of moves to bolster Russia while Ukraine accused the U.S. of withdrawing crucial support.
\u201cWe want Zelenskyy to make a deal,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, intensifying a pressure campaign that has fueled concern the U.S. is no longer committed to Kyiv\u2019s defense against the Russian invasion.
\u201cWe\u2019ve given a lot to Ukraine. We\u2019ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,\u201d Trump said.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that a deal to end the war might be close.
\u201cWe\u2019re negotiating with Russia right now on Ukraine,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time.\u201d
Witkoff told Putin on Wednesday that \u201cgroundwork\u201d had been laid to end the fighting and that he had brought documents outlining approaches to a possible deal.
Zelenskyy said a potential trilateral leaders\u2019 meeting was \u201cone of the important ideas\u201d raised in Oslo after Tuesday\u2019s talks, which also included the leaders of Norway and Finland.
Putin has so far insisted that any meeting with Zelenskyy could happen only once a deal is finalized and take place in Moscow, a nonstarter for Ukraine. The Kremlin has also shown little sign of shifting from its hard-line demands, which include seizing Ukraine\u2019s entire eastern Donbas region.
Trump signed a diesel deal with Russia this month and waived new sanctions on Moscow, drawing bipartisan criticism. He claimed Wednesday that negotiations to free Hubbard \u201cwould have come to a complete and total halt\u201d had he not waived the sanctions.
Kyiv, meanwhile, said that it received no warning about at least three major Russian attacks and that restrictions on Elon Musk\u2019s Starshield satellite service continue to hamper its aerial defenses and battlefield operations.
After the talks with Witkoff on Tuesday, Zelenskyy told reporters the recent issues with intelligence sharing had been resolved.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks in Oslo \u201cpositive\u201d but said \u201cnothing unexpected\u201d came out of them.
Rubio once again denied that the White House was behind any slowdown to Ukraine\u2019s use of the internet service, saying it was an issue for Musk and SpaceX. Musk said last week that any decision was down to Trump.
Deadly Russian attacks continued to hit Ukraine, meanwhile, with at least nine civilians killed across the country Wednesday as Moscow ramps up its strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of winter.
Authorities in Russia\u2019s border Bryansk region said Wednesday that one person was killed in a Ukrainian strike.
Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.
Daniel Arkin is a senior reporter at NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeRussia has released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two countries as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal to end Moscow\u2019s war against Ukraine.The jet carrying Hubbard touched down at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}