A 72-year-old American man was sentenced Monday to nearly seven years in Russian prison after he was accused of fighting for Ukraine.
Stephen Hubbard pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to six years and 10 months behind bars, according to Russian state media.
The Russians said Hubbard signed a contract with the Ukrainian military in February 2022 after Russia invaded. According to the Russians, he was captured two months later in the city of Izyum in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces took control of Izyum in April 2022, but it was liberated in a Ukrainian counterattack in September 2022. However, that was too late to save Hubbard, who was behind bars in Russia the entire time.
Hubbard’s detention was unknown globally until September 2024, when his trial began in Russia. Prosecutors said he was paid $1,000 per month in exchange for fighting in the Ukrainian military, according to Reuters news service.
Though Hubbard pleaded guilty, his sister Patricia Hubbard Fox and another relative told Reuters they were skeptical of his confession.
“He is so non-military,” Fox told the outlet. “He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that … He’s more of a pacifist.”
Hubbard had lived in Ukraine since 2014 and had few connections in the country, living off a small pension and never learning the language, Fox told Reuters.
He is now one of several Americans sentenced to years in a Russian prison, even after a massive prisoner swap was completed in August between Russia and several Western nations.
Also on Monday, one of those Americans behind bars, Robert Gilman, was sentenced to seven more years in prison for assaulting police officers, according to Russian media.
Gilman, a former Marine, was first detained in 2022, after Russian authorities claimed he drunkenly attacked a cop on a train. He was sentenced to three years in that case, which paralleled Russia’s account of another former Marine, Trevor Reed, who was released in a 2022 prisoner swap.
But the Russians said Gilman also assaulted an officer during a routine prisoner checkup, and was given an additional seven years.
With News Wire Services
