SAN ANTONIO – Stephen Hubbard’s release from a Russian prison came as a stunning surprise. The 74-year-old U.S. citizen had spent more than four years behind bars and, according to his younger sister, did not understand he was being freed until he boarded a plane and saw an American flag.
Patricia Hubbard Fox said Thursday in San Antonio, where her brother was brought for medical evaluation, that he had no idea why authorities were moving him from prison to Moscow. He may even have feared that he was being taken to his death, she said.
Instead, Hubbard has been reacting with what his sister described as laughter born of relief. “Oh my God, I’m free. This is really happening,” she recalled him saying.
President Donald Trump said he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call earlier this month to release Hubbard, a retired Michigan teacher. Russian authorities accused Hubbard of fighting with Ukrainian forces after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was convicted in a closed proceeding in 2024 and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
The Biden administration had classified Hubbard as wrongfully detained. His attorneys rejected Russia’s claims as well, maintaining that Hubbard never took part in military operations.
Hubbard Fox said her brother endured severe hunger and beatings in custody. At one point, she said, Ukrainian prisoners had to carry him because he was too weak to walk.
She recalled Russian guards telling him, “Die, American. Die.” Those words, she said, fueled her brother’s determination to survive. “That just made him mad enough not to die,” she said. “I’ll show them. I’m so proud of him.”
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A U.S. Air Force veteran, Hubbard spent years teaching English abroad before retiring to Cyprus in 2012. One of his sons is an Orthodox Christian priest there. Hubbard later relocated to Ukraine to live with a woman he had met, according to his lawyers, and stayed after their relationship ended. He was in Ukraine when Russia invaded.
For a long time, Hubbard Fox had no idea where her brother was. She eventually learned of his fate after a woman in Ukraine contacted her after spotting Hubbard’s name on a prison roster.
“God doesn’t always answer prayers immediately, but he always answers mine,” Hubbard Fox said. “I told Jesus, ‘Get him home.’”
In a separate interview Wednesday, she said Hubbard would likely move in with her in Colorado. The siblings were also eagerly anticipating a reunion with the rest of their family.
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Peipert reported from Denver.
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