President Trump said on Tuesday that he had asked President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to release Stephen James Hubbard, a Michigan teacher who was seized from his home in Ukraine months after Russia invaded that country in February 2022.
The United States has maintained that the charges against Mr. Hubbard are fabricated. Accused of being a mercenary, he was sentenced to more than six years in a penal colony.
“I’ve been talking to President Putin about Mr. Hubbard,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’ve been talking to him at length. I’ve asked him to release him. Let’s see what happens.”
He added, “It’s time to have Mr. Hubbard back.”
The return of Mr. Hubbard would allow Mr. Trump to claim a victory for his “America First” foreign policy as he faces mounting blowback, including some from his own party, in his push to rehabilitate Russia on the world stage. Mr. Trump’s courting of Mr. Putin has threated to upend the balance of power in the Ukraine war, alarming both Kyiv and U.S. allies.
Mr. Hubbard, a world traveler, has become an unlikely pawn in that war. The State Department has declared that Mr. Hubbard, 74, was “wrongfully detained,” and former Ukrainian prisoners of war held with him say they believe he will die behind bars if he is not freed.
Mr. Putin has not publicly commented on Mr. Hubbard’s case.
Mr. Trump’s talk of freeing Mr. Hubbard comes as the American president is pushing Ukraine to agree to terms to end Russia’s invasion. He has leveled increasingly harsh criticism at President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has resisted turning over his country’s land and rewarding Russian aggression.
Facing political backlash against high fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections, the American president has cut a deal to purchase diesel from Moscow and has been promoting it as evidence he is working to lower costs. And he has begun blaming Mr. Zelensky for high diesel prices in the United States.
“Look, we have given tremendous amounts to Ukraine. We’ve got nothing back, other than high diesel,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday. He added: “We’ve got nothing back, and the American taxpayers are tired of it. We want Zelensky to make a deal.”
In recent months, Mr. Trump’s main envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, have asked Mr. Zelensky not to strike Russian oil refineries. Mr. Zelensky has said he paused refinery strikes for three days to comply with Mr. Trump’s request, but was resuming them.
This week, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner are expected to fly to St. Petersburg, Russia, to meet Mr. Putin in his hometown. There, they are expected to try to secure Mr. Hubbard’s release.
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