Stephen James Hubbard left America behind a long time in the past, first for Japan, then Cyprus and at last Ukraine. He didn’t like the federal government — any authorities, actually.
He was a wanderer, rising up in a small city in Michigan and touring the world earlier than ending up alone within the jap Ukrainian city of Izium when the Russians invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.
Now Mr. Hubbard, a retired English instructor who turns 73 on Thursday, has develop into an unlikely pawn in a global struggle. The Russians arrested him shortly after invading and accused him of preventing for Ukraine. They moved him to not less than 5 totally different Russian detention facilities earlier than placing him on trial on a cost of being a mercenary.
In October, a Moscow courtroom convicted him and sentenced him to virtually seven years in a penal colony.
His case has remained largely beneath the radar. However final month the State Division stated Mr. Hubbard was “wrongfully detained” — elevating his case and indicating that the USA believes that the costs are fabricated.
A State Division spokesman stated he by no means ought to have been taken captive or moved to a Russian jail.
Mr. Hubbard’s sister and three former Ukrainian prisoners of struggle held with Mr. Hubbard dispute that he fought for Ukraine. The previous prisoners say they consider he’ll die if he’s not freed. They are saying he endured the identical torture they did: repeatedly crushed, terrorized by canine, pressured to face all day, day-after-day, even stripped bare for greater than a month.
“They’d beat our ankles and drive us into the splits, tearing ligaments within the course of,” stated Ihor Shyshko, 41, who stated he shared a cell with Mr. Hubbard. “Lots of the males have been injured, some completely. The circumstances have been past inhumane.
“The identical factor occurred to Stephen, however it was even worse for him as a result of he’s an American,” added Mr. Shyshko, who was freed in a prisoner trade final summer time. “They stormed in, shouting within the hallway: ‘We all know you’re an American. You’re lifeless right here!’”
The US has accused Russia of inflating and inventing legal costs towards Individuals to allow them to be traded for Russians held elsewhere or used as worldwide bargaining chips. After a serious prisoner trade in August, Mr. Hubbard is one in every of 13 Individuals now recognized to be held in Russian prisons. Mr. Hubbard is the oldest. He’s additionally the one American recognized to be imprisoned in Russia after being taken from Ukraine.
Solely one different American now being held has been publicly designated as wrongfully detained in Russia.
Mr. Hubbard’s household has not been capable of finding his jail. The Russian decide eliminated his case file, together with even primary data like his lawyer’s identify, from public view. The New York Occasions additionally couldn’t find him.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not seen Mr. Hubbard, regardless of Russia’s obligation to grant entry, a State Division spokesman stated. The embassy stated it could not touch upon his case due to privateness issues.
Mr. Shyshko stated he tried to ask the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv for assist, however he couldn’t get previous the entrance door.
Patricia Hubbard Fox, 71, Mr. Hubbard’s solely sibling, stated, “It’s simply actually very upsetting,” including, “And now they’ve taken every little thing from him, even his glasses.”
A Quiet Life
Mr. Hubbard had at all times been a solitary man. He favored his privateness. He didn’t like electronic mail and social media. He was suspicious of presidency businesses that may be spying on web posts and of what the federal government spent taxes on.
He and his sister grew up in Huge Rapids, a really small Michigan metropolis. Their single mom generally abused them. “We grew up on the finish of a bullwhip,” Ms. Hubbard Fox recalled.
As an grownup, Mr. Hubbard at all times appeared to be looking: He enrolled in a Bible faculty in Tulsa, Okla., however lasted solely a 12 months. He married younger, at 20.
Mr. Hubbard enlisted within the Air Power, however he left after three years of lively responsibility and two within the Nationwide Guard, primarily in Sacramento, data present. He labored as an academic assistant with the native veterans affairs division and studied at a close-by enterprise faculty. His marriage fell aside and Mr. Hubbard’s spouse gained custody of their three kids.
Mr. Hubbard landed in Seattle, the place he earned a grasp’s diploma in English and met the Japanese lady who turned his second spouse, Ms. Hubbard Fox stated.
Within the mid-Eighties, the couple moved to Japan, the place Mr. Hubbard taught English and joined the Japanese Orthodox Church. The couple had a son earlier than divorcing. After his son grew up, Mr. Hubbard moved to Cyprus, the place a son from his first marriage lived and the place he fell in love with one other lady, Inna. She was Ukrainian.
In 2014, they moved to Izium. When he wanted cash, he instructed his sister, he taught English on-line. He spoke no Ukrainian, no Russian.
Ms. Hubbard Fox stated she final spoke to her brother on Skype in September 2021, as he sat right down to eat some porridge.
It’s not clear whether or not the couple had separated or whether or not Inna was on trip. However when the Russians invaded in February 2022, Mr. Hubbard was alone.
Weeks later, the Russians captured Izium. The next day, April 2, 2022, Mr. Hubbard was detained, the RIA Novosti state information company later reported.
The circumstances are murky. The Russian authorities stated Mr. Hubbard had signed up that February — the month he turned 70 — for the regional territorial protection unit to defend Ukraine and obtained coaching, weapons, ammunition and $1,000 a month. They stated he was arrested whereas manning army checkpoints.
That was unlikely, stated Alyona Hryban, a civil servant in Izium. She stated the territorial protection unit had few weapons. Nobody was paid. “There have been no previous males there,” she added.
Mr. Shyshko recalled that Mr. Hubbard stated he was detained at a checkpoint whereas fleeing.
“He wished to get out of there, however he couldn’t,” Mr. Shyshko stated.
‘He’s Each American’
Mr. Hubbard’s first detention camp was 5 miles over the Russian border. Andrii Stratulat, one other prisoner of struggle, stated the Russians gave Mr. Hubbard two English books: “The Egg and I,” a 1945 memoir by a younger spouse on a rooster farm, and “The Pretty Bones,” a 2002 novel a few younger lady whose spirit involves phrases along with her rape and homicide. He learn them again and again.
Mr. Stratulat, who spoke English, was put in Mr. Hubbard’s tent in June 2022.
“He stated that day he began to smile,” recalled Mr. Stratulat, 30.
They spent 42 days collectively, Mr. Stratulat stated. Mr. Hubbard talked about his life: A visit he took to the Grand Canyon. His baptism into the Japanese Orthodox Church. His Japanese spouse, Sumi. Their son, Hisashi. His accomplice, Inna.
All through his imprisonment, Mr. Stratulat would recite these names to himself: Hisashi. Sumi. Inna. When he was freed, he wished to inform somebody in regards to the American he had met.
In late July 2022, Mr. Hubbard was transferred, Mr. Stratulat recalled.
A captured Ukrainian particular forces officer with the decision signal of Hacker met Mr. Hubbard within the Stary Oskol jail in Belgorod, about 80 miles northeast of the detention camp, in early September. After an interrogation that was extra like torture, Hacker stated, he was taken to a cell with Mr. Hubbard, who gave him water and prayed for him.
“It’s the primary time some man, an previous man, a clever man, prayed for me,” stated Hacker, 33, whom The Occasions is figuring out by his army name signal as a result of he’s nonetheless preventing Russia.
Hacker stated he met Mr. Hubbard once more a few month later, in Novozybkov jail. For 2 months, they have been housed in close by cells. “I heard every little thing that was occurring to him,” recalled Hacker, who was freed final spring.
Mr. Hubbard had issues along with his kidneys, abdomen and rectal tract, Hacker stated. He was bleeding. The Russian guards beat him and compelled him to be taught Russian phrases, Russian poets, the Russian nationwide anthem.
“The troopers, guards and particular forces checked out him as an archenemy,” Hacker stated. “As a result of Stephen, he’s the American. He’s the American spider. He’s the American from Michigan. He’s each American.”
As a result of Russian officers have disclosed no details about Mr. Hubbard, the previous prisoners’ accounts are unimaginable to confirm. However they aligned with each other and with these of different Ukrainian prisoners of struggle.
In 2023, Mr. Hubbard was moved to a jail in Pakino, about 170 miles east of Moscow, the place he shared a cell with Mr. Shyshko and 13 different males, Mr. Shyshko stated.
There, prisoners have been interrogated, typically tortured, shocked with electrical energy, crushed and burned, Hacker and Mr. Shyshko stated.
After the Russians discovered scabies on prisoners, they have been all stripped and brought to a chilly basement, the place they have been pressured to stroll bare in circles sporting solely slippers for a month and a half, Mr. Shyshko stated.
Mr. Shyshko stated the physician instructed him “‘the scabies mite can’t reproduce within the chilly, it’ll die together with you.’”
Lunch was typically boiled water with just a few cabbage leaves; dinner, leftovers from Russian inmates, blended collectively. Mr. Shyshko’s weight dropped to lower than 130 kilos from about 240.
“Stephen, although, he by no means gave in,” Mr. Shyshko stated. “He saved telling us: ‘These individuals aren’t human. Don’t lose hope.’ He stood as much as them and inspired us to carry on.”
Someday, Mr. Hubbard stated he thought his sister may be searching for him.
A Jail Sentence
Ms. Hubbard Fox fearful about her brother when the struggle began. However she couldn’t attain him. Ultimately she discovered the Russians had him: She noticed an interview on Russian TV during which he echoed Russian speaking factors — prisoners of struggle typically are instructed what to say — and one other video, posted briefly on X, the place guards hit Mr. Hubbard with a sandal.
She stated she tried to speak to the American authorities, however received little assist. And she or he wasn’t positive whom to name.
In mid-Could 2024, Mr. Hubbard disappeared from the jail in Pakino and later surfaced in courtroom proceedings in Moscow. At one listening to, earlier than the decide closed the trial to the general public, RIA Novosti reported that Mr. Hubbard had pleaded responsible to being a mercenary, saying from the dock, “Sure, I agree with the indictment.”
Early final October, Mr. Hubbard — bent over, his hair and beard roughly chopped, his glasses gone — was sentenced to 6 years and 10 months in a jail colony.
Ms. Hubbard Fox stated she hoped President Trump may cope with the Russians. “He’s a doer, they usually know that he’s not going to place up with their crap,” Ms. Hubbard Fox stated.
She stated that seeing her brother crushed with a sandal reminded her of seeing him abused as a baby. She plans to promote her house in Colorado and purchase one in Oklahoma, so her brother can reside along with her when he will get out.
“I really like my house, however my brother’s misplaced every little thing,” she stated. “So I’m doing this. I’m going to supply him a house.”
Reporting was contributed by Hisako Ueno from Tokyo; Dzvinka Pinchuk, Yurii Shyvala and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn from Kyiv; and Shawn Hubler from Sacramento. Susan Beachy contributed analysis.