Stephen James Hubbard, 72, was allegedly preventing in Izyum earlier than he was captured by Russian forces in April 2022.
Stephen James Hubbard, a US citizen, has pleaded responsible in a Moscow court docket to fees of preventing as a mercenary for Ukraine, in response to Russia’s RIA Novosti information company.
RIA stated 72-year-old Hubbard admitted in a listening to on the Moscow Metropolis Court docket on Monday that he had been paid to combat for Ukraine in opposition to Russia.
“Sure, I agree with the indictment,” RIA quoted him as saying.
Final week, a court docket ordered Hubbard to be positioned into pre-trial detention till March 26, 2025. He faces a sentence of between seven and 15 years if convicted.
Hubbard’s sister Patricia Fox forged doubt on his reported confession, saying her brother was too previous to combat. She stated he had been dwelling in Ukraine since 2014 and she or he had final spoken to him over Skype in September 2021.
“He’s so non-military,” she instructed the Reuters information company by cellphone. “He by no means had a gun, owned a gun, executed any of that…He’s extra of a pacifist.”
RIA, citing a prosecutor in court docket, stated Hubbard had signed a contract with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit within the northeastern Ukrainian metropolis of Izyum at the beginning of the warfare in February 2022.
The prosecution stated he had been promised $1,000 a month and was supplied with coaching, weapons and ammunition. RIA quoted the prosecutor as saying Hubbard was captured by Russian troopers on April 2 that 12 months, simply weeks after Moscow had began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s unclear how he ended up in Moscow.
English trainer
Hubbard is one among not less than 10 Individuals behind bars in Russia, almost two months after a prisoner swap on August 1 between Moscow and the West noticed the discharge of three Individuals and dozens of others.
A spokesperson for the US Embassy within the Russian capital stated in an announcement final week that it was conscious that one among its residents had been detained, referring to Hubbard, however declined to remark additional.
Initially from Large Rapids, Michigan, Hubbard labored for many years as an English trainer overseas, together with in Japan and Cyprus, his sister stated.
Fox added that her brother had lived with a Ukrainian girl for a time, surviving on a small pension. When she final spoke to him, he had cut up from his companion and was dwelling alone, she stated.
Fox stated she had acquired little details about her brother’s standing for months till a video surfaced on-line.
The video, posted to YouTube in Could 2022 by an account with simply greater than 100 followers, exhibits a bearded man in a brown sweater sitting going through the digital camera and answering questions from an off-camera interviewer, who speaks with accented English.
It’s unclear the place and when it was filmed, however Fox recognized the person as her brother.
Within the video, the person says he understands why Russian President Vladimir Putin despatched troops into Ukraine and expresses hope that the warfare will finish quickly.
