U.S. man, 72, sentenced to Russian prison for allegedly fighting for Ukraine

Stephen Hubbard reportedly pleaded guilty to being a mercenary for Ukraine, but some of his family members are casting doubt on the confession.

An American man has been sentenced to six years and 10 months in a Russian prison for allegedly fighting as a paid mercenary for Ukraine.

Stephen Hubbard, a 72-year-old originally from Big Rapids, Mich., appeared in a Moscow courtroom Monday in handcuffs wearing a beige sweater and black toque, later removing the hat to reveal a shaved head.

On top of his prison sentence, Hubbard was ordered to pay the state about $4,700, state-run news agency TASS reports. The 72-year-old has been in custody since April 2022 and his sentence will include the more than two years he has already spent behind bars.

He will serve out the remainder of his prison term in a labour camp, or a “general regime colony,” ruled judge Alexandra Kovalevskaya.

The conviction comes after Hubbard reportedly accepted the mercenary charges and pleaded guilty, though members of Hubbard’s family are casting doubt on his confession. The 72-year-old allegedly said in an interview dispersed to Russian media that he was “incited by the Ukrainian media” to join the military and that he was taken captive by Russian servicemen who “treated him well,” TASS reports.

Hubbard’s sister Patricia Hubbard Fox told Reuters in an interview that she doesn’t believe her brother took up arms against Russia, considering his age and the fact that he held pro-Russian views.

“He is so non-military,” Fox said. “He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that…He’s more of a pacifist.”

Fox and another relative told Reuters that Hubbard has spent decades abroad teaching English, including in Japan and Cyprus. He moved to Ukraine in 2014 and lived for a time with his girlfriend, a Ukrainian woman, before the pair broke up and he started living alone in Izyum, a city just south of Kharkiv near the Ukraine-Russia border.