Moscow court jails American mercenary for six years

A Moscow court has handed down a lengthy prison sentence to 72-year-old US citizen Stephen Hubbard, who was found guilty of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.

Hubbard had lived in Ukraine since 2014 and signed a contract with a territorial defense unit in the city of Izyum in February 2022. According to prosecutors, he was promised a salary of $1,000 per month to fight alongside Ukrainian forces and was provided with training, weapons, and ammunition. Hubbard was reportedly detained by Russian soldiers on April 2, 2022 during the fighting for the strategic city, less than two weeks after Moscow lauched its offensive in Ukraine.

Hubbard’s trial took place behind closed doors at the Moscow City Court, where he pleaded guilty to charges of serving as a mercenary. In an interview last month, Hubbard, a native of Michigan, claimed that he was incited to join Kiev’s forces by the Ukrainian media without fully understanding the situation.

On Monday, Judge Alexandra Kovalevskaya sentenced Hubbard to six years and ten months in prison. His lawyer declined to comment on the verdict, but it is understood that Hubbard will appeal the decision.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that Hubbard was arrested two years ago in Ukraine but stated that Washington has limited information about the case, accusing Moscow of refusing to grant consular access to the American detainee. Meanwhile, Hubbard's sister and other relatives cast doubt on his confession, claiming that he was unlikely to have taken up arms at his age.

Hubbard will serve his sentence, minus the time he already spent in pre-trial detention, in a general regime colony, where he will be eligible for parole after completing half of his term. The court also ordered that the 142,000 hryvnias ($3,400) seized from Hubbard during his capture be paid to the Russian state.

Moscow has the names of over 4,000 foreign mercenaries employed to fight for Kiev, and Russian troops have been tasked with “meticulously gathering information” about such individuals, Rodion Miroshnik, who is leading a special mission to investigate alleged Ukrainian war crimes, said in August.

In March, the Russian Defense Ministry published a list of countries from which mercenaries had come to fight for Kiev. The statistics claimed that the total number of such fighters – whom the Russian military considers legitimate targets – was over 13,300. Of those, roughly 6,000 have been killed, the ministry reported. It named Poland, Georgia, and the US as the top three suppliers of mercenaries.