{"id":46903,"date":"2026-10-22T09:43:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2026\/10\/22\/russia-frees-american-stephen-hubbard-following-trumps-direct-appeal-to-putin\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:43:57","slug":"russia-frees-american-stephen-hubbard-following-trumps-direct-appeal-to-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2026\/10\/22\/russia-frees-american-stephen-hubbard-following-trumps-direct-appeal-to-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Frees American Stephen Hubbard Following Trump&#8217;s Direct Appeal to Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>American Teacher Released from Russian Prison Following Trump&#8217;s Intervention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former President Donald Trump announced the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired U.S. teacher detained in Russia for nearly four years. Hubbard was accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine when he was captured.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared that Hubbard&#8217;s release was a direct result of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. &#8220;Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,&#8221; Trump stated, highlighting that no concessions were made by the United States for his release\u2014a rare occurrence in dealings with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Hubbard was sentenced to almost seven years in prison in 2024 after prosecutors claimed he had joined the Ukrainian military after Russia&#8217;s invasion in February 2022. He fought alongside them until he was captured just two months later.<\/p>\n<p>During an earlier meeting, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff informed Putin that \u201cbecause of you, he\u2019s going home to his family.\u201d This emphasizes the diplomatic discussions that led to Hubbard&#8217;s return. <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Trump pointed out that many who had previously called for sanctions against Russia have since apologized, realizing that such actions might have disrupted the negotiations for Hubbard&#8217;s release. Trump criticized the Biden administration for not achieving this outcome sooner, stating, \u201cWhat a difference a President makes!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hubbard, who hails from Michigan, was 72 at the time of his capture. Now 74, he is expected to return home to celebrate with his family. Trump\u2019s remarks express a sense of relief and celebration, saying, &#8220;Welcome home Stephen, it\u2019s great to have you back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The situation sheds light on the ongoing complexities of U.S.-Russia relations, especially regarding American citizens caught in international conflicts.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Teacher Released from Russian Prison Following Trump&#8217;s Intervention Former President Donald Trump announced the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired U.S. teacher detained in Russia for nearly four years. Hubbard was accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine when he was captured. In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared that Hubbard&#8217;s release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[95,1111,3482,2028],"class_list":["post-46903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}