Kathrine Frich
Patricia said Moscow simply used her brother as “bait” in the war.
Waiting for a phone call from a loved one overseas can feel like an eternity.
When years pass in silence, families cling to the smallest hope that the phone will finally ring.
On Wednesday, one long wait ended with a voice on the line and a flood of relief.
Free at last
Retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, walked out of a Russian prison on Wednesday, October 21, after spending more than four years in custody, according to the Daily Express.
As soon as he left Russian territory and headed home to the United States, the Michigan native phoned his younger sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox.
“That was awesome. He was just laughing. He said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ He’s out of Russia territory. He is free, praise God. He really thought he was going to die in prison,” Patricia said, as quoted by the Daily Express.
With her brother finally safe, she did not hold back her feelings about Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin is as evil as they come,” she told reporters, according to the outlet.
President Donald Trump said he asked Putin to release Hubbard during a phone call earlier this month, while US envoy Steve Witkoff also met the Kremlin leader in St Petersburg. Trump called the freed prisoner a “very high-quality, innocent man” and added: “He is the happiest man around,” the Daily Express reported.
Four brutal years
The US Air Force veteran taught English abroad before retiring in 2012 to Cyprus, where one of his sons serves as an Orthodox Christian priest, according to his lawyers and the Daily Express.
Later, he moved to Ukraine for a relationship and stayed there even after the couple split up, meaning he was still living in the country when Moscow invaded in 2022.
Russian authorities detained him that year and convicted him behind closed doors in 2024, handing down nearly seven years in jail on charges of signing a Ukrainian military contract.
Both his legal team and the Biden administration, which declared him wrongfully detained, rejected the mercenary claims, while Patricia said Moscow simply used her brother as “bait” in the war.
According to the Daily Express, Patricia said her brother was healthy when he was “kidnapped” in 2022, but endured starvation and beatings behind bars that left him with an enlarged heart and likely post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now she expects him to move in with her in Colorado, where they can both finally get a proper night’s rest. For the past four years, Patricia slept on her sofa to stand by her brother, explaining to the Daily Express that she did it “because I figured he didn’t have a bed. Why should I have a bed?”
