The younger sister of Stephen Hubbard, the American freed Wednesday after spending more than four years in a Russian prison, said she spoke with her brother by phone and described him as being in disbelief.

"That was awesome. He was just laughing. ... He said, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" Patricia Hubbard Fox told The Associated Press in a phone interview as she headed to Denver's airport to catch a flight to San Antonio to meet her brother.

President Donald Trump said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call earlier this month to free Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan.