Ukrainian Inmates Say US Citizen Hubbard Faced Beatings in Russian Custody

Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired English teacher, was released by Russia after four and a half years of detention. He was captured in April 2022 in Izyum, the eastern Ukrainian city where he lived with his Ukrainian partner, and later convicted in a Moscow trial on charges of serving in Ukraine's armed forces. He received a sentence of six years and 10 months.

Two Ukrainians who shared his detention are now describing what they witnessed. Dmytro Khyliuk, a journalist, met Hubbard in September 2022 at the Novozybkov prison in Bryansk, near the border with Ukraine. Khyliuk said guards asked which cell held the American during inspections and used obscene language. "They threatened him, they mocked him from the first days," Khyliuk said.

Ihor Shyshko, a captured Ukrainian soldier, was held with Hubbard as well. Shyshko said Hubbard's American nationality drew attention from officers, who ordered him to learn Russian, sing the national anthem and recite the prison schedule rules. He said he saw guards beat Hubbard on the legs, back and arms, and shock him with a stun gun. He also alleged food and medical care were withheld and that Hubbard endured cold temperatures, sexual humiliation and abuse for the amusement of prison staff.

Khyliuk reported a decline in Hubbard's health over the months they spent in neighbouring cells, with complaints audible through the walls and more frequent visits to the prison doctor. He described broken windows and bitter cold, with detainees huddling in the bathroom for warmth when outside their cells. The two men later saw Hubbard again at Pakino, where Shyshko said Hubbard's condition had worsened. Shyshko described rot on Hubbard's feet and knees, recalled bandaging him after a doctor refused, and said Hubbard was weak and barely able to move. The diet consisted of porridge, bread and potatoes, and Shyshko reported daily beatings, forced running, stress positions, and a handler setting a dog on prisoners to bite them.

Khyliuk stated that after the transfer to Pakino, Hubbard was hidden from visiting International Red Cross staff. "They saw only what was shown to them and they were happy with that," Khyliuk said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it asks to see every individual and assess conditions wherever it is granted access, and that it continues talks with the parties to the conflict on the issue. Khyliuk said he assumed Hubbard had been released when he disappeared from the prison in 2024. Khyliuk returned to Ukraine in August 2025 through a prisoner exchange.

Russia released Hubbard on the day US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to discuss the war in Ukraine. Witkoff called Putin a "humanitarian." US President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin to free Hubbard in a phone call the previous week. Khyliuk said he was glad Hubbard was freed and noted "it was not his war," while calling the timing "shameful PR of the US president, who is losing votes in elections to Congress." Shyshko said he hopes the perpetrators face justice: "Evil must be punished, and so it will be."

Khyliuk compared the treatment to the Stalin era. "Russian captivity is a torture machine," he said.