President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Russia has released Stephen Hubbard, a seventy-four-year-old retired teacher from Michigan who had been in Russian custody since 2022, describing the return as an "unprecedented" arrangement in which the United States gave up nothing in exchange.
"Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family," the White House posted from its official account, which has 5.3 million followers, attributing the announcement to the president. The post noted that Hubbard had been "taken four years ago by Russia during the Biden Administration."
The New York Post, which has 4.2 million followers, reported that Trump celebrated the release while directing criticism at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for failing to secure Hubbard's freedom sooner. According to the Post's account, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Hubbard "was just released from prison, at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week."
The president's message continued: "This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden Administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin. Biden should have done the Hubbard release long ago! What a difference a President makes!"
Fox News, which has 29.4 million followers, reported that Trump told reporters the U.S. was "not required" to give up anything in return for Hubbard's release. The network described Hubbard as "an American teacher held in Russia for years" who was freed after the president "personally pressed Vladimir Putin for his release."
The Washington Post, which has 19.3 million followers, reported that Hubbard had been held by Russia since 2022 and was "on his way home to the U.S." The Post also noted that Trump said Hubbard's release was not part of a broader prisoner exchange.
ABC News, which has 18.6 million followers, reported that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Russia to oversee the release. According to ABC's reporting, Witkoff traveled to St. Petersburg, where the meeting took place.
In a transcript of ABC's broadcast, correspondent Ian Pannell described Hubbard as "the only American held in Russia, officially designated as wrongfully detained by the State Department." Pannell reported that Hubbard was taken by Kremlin troops in early 2022 as they occupied parts of Ukraine, and that Russia convicted him of murder, a charge his family and Ukraine deny.
According to the ABC transcript, Witkoff thanked Putin directly and "even called him a humanitarian" during the meeting. The Kremlin published a readout of the exchange in which Witkoff said, "I want to thank you very much. The president sends his thanks. Because of you, he's going home to his family."
ABC's reporting noted that while Hubbard may be the only American officially designated as wrongfully detained, "there are at least fifteen other Americans still being held there."
The ABC panel also discussed the broader context of the release, noting that "significant sanctions on Russia approved by Congress were blocked by the President this week." The panel observed that "criticism of Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine... has almost vanished," and that Trump had claimed Russia "has been fine on Ukraine."
According to the New York Post's reporting, Hubbard is a U.S. Air Force and National Guard veteran from Big Rapids, Michigan, who was living in eastern Ukraine with a Ukrainian partner when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. He was detained by Russian forces in April 2022 and convicted of being a mercenary in October 2024, receiving a sentence of six years and ten months.
Russian prosecutors claimed Hubbard joined a Ukrainian territorial defense unit, received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised one thousand dollars a month. Russian state media said he pleaded guilty at his closed trial.
Hubbard's U.S.-based lawyer, Martin de Luca, said in June 2025 that his client claimed the charges against him were false and that he was not in any combat or military unit. Hubbard told de Luca that Russian soldiers had taken him from his house in the city of Izyum, near Kharkiv, without warning.
ABC News also spoke with Hubbard's sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, who said she was thanking Trump "for being the hand of God and bringing Stephen Hubbard home." She added: "He's been gone a long, long time. Thank you President Trump for caring for everyday Americans." Fox said she learned about her brother's release from the media and had not yet spoken with him or with U.S. officials.
According to ABC's reporting, Hubbard will be flown to San Antonio, where there is a military base.
Trump also defended his recent decision to waive numerous sanctions on Russia, writing that "if sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt."
Next News Network could not independently verify the circumstances of Hubbard's release or the conditions described by the president and his envoy.
Our Take
The release of Stephen Hubbard after more than four years in Russian custody is genuinely welcome news for his family and for a nation that too often forgets the Americans left behind in hostile hands. But the framing of this moment deserves scrutiny that the legacy press is already rushing to provide.
The president and his supporters are correct to note that Hubbard came home without a reciprocal prisoner swap, a notable development in the annals of hostage diplomacy. They are also correct that the previous administration failed to secure his release over a period of years. That is a legitimate point of comparison, and the New York Post and Fox News are right to highlight it.
What the White House and its allies in the media are less eager to discuss is the broader context in which this release occurred. The president's own envoy stood beside Vladimir Putin and called him a humanitarian. Sanctions approved by Congress were blocked. Criticism of a war that has left hundreds of thousands dead has gone quiet. The American people deserve to know whether Hubbard's freedom was purchased with a shift in policy that will cost far more than it appears.
One American came home Wednesday. At least fifteen more remain. The question conservatives should be asking is not simply whether Trump did what Biden could not, but whether the price of that success will be paid by Ukraine, by our allies, and by the next American taken hostage by a regime that now believes it has leverage over this White House.
Celebrate Hubbard's return. Demand answers about everything that came with it.
