Russia releases American Stephen Hubbard after four years in prison

Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old former Michigan teacher, has been released from a Russian prison and is on his way home to the United States, President Donald Trump said. Russian prosecutors accused him of signing a contract with the Ukrainian military and fighting alongside its forces; convicted in a closed-door trial in 2024, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. The United States had declared Hubbard wrongfully detained. US envoy Steve Witkoff met him in St Petersburg during a visit to Russia for talks on the war in Ukraine.