American who fought in Ukraine gets 7-year jail term in Russia

MOSCOW, Russia: A 72-year-old American who allegedly fought as a mercenary in Ukraine was sentenced by a Russian court this week in a closed trial to nearly seven years in prison.

Prosecutors said Stephen Hubbard signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and he fought alongside them until being captured two months later.

Prosecutors had called for a sentence of seven years in a maximum-security prison, but he was sentenced to six years and 10 months in a general-security prison.

A resident of Michigan, Hubbard is the first American convicted for fighting as a mercenary in the Ukrainian conflict.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that it had limited information about the case as Russia has refused to grant consular access.

Russian news reports said the charges against Hubbard carried a potential sentence of 15 years, but prosecutors asked for leniency due to his age and his admission of guilt.

Arrests of Americans have become increasingly common in Russia in recent years.

Also, on October 7, a court in the city of Voronezh sentenced American Robert Gilman to seven years and one month for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers while serving a sentence for another assault.

According to Russian news reports, Gilman was arrested in 2022 for causing a disturbance while intoxicated on a passenger train and then assaulting a police officer while in custody. He is serving a 3-year sentence on that charge.

Last year, he assaulted a prison inspector during a cell check, then hit an official of the Investigative Committee, resulting in the new sentence, state news agency RIA-Novosti said.

in August this year, the U.S. and Russia completed their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, a deal involving 24 people. Russians in U.S. custody were released, but several U.S. citizens remain behind bars in Russia following the swap.