A 72-year-old American was sentenced to nearly seven years behind bars by a Russian court on Monday, after being convicted of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
Prosecutors at Moscow City Court said Stephen Hubbard signed a contract with the Ukrainian army after Russia invaded the country in February 2022.
Hubbard is alleged to have fought alongside Kyiv’s forces for two months before he was captured by Russian troops.
Investigators said he was paid $1,000 per month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defense unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014.
He was sentenced to six years and 10 months in a general-security prison, a slightly lighter sentence than what the prosecutors had called for, which was seven years in a maximum-security prison.
Hubbard, from the state of Michigan, is the first American known to have been convicted on charges of fighting as a mercenary in the Ukrainian conflict.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the department had limited information on the case, as Moscow had refused to grant consular access.
“We’re disappointed, as we often are, when they refuse to grant consular access,” Miller told reporters in Washington.
“They have an obligation to provide it, and we’re going to continue to press for it. We’re looking at the case very closely and considering our next steps.”
Hubbard’s purported crimes carried a maximum sentence of 15 years, but prosecutors asked for his age and admission of guilt to be taken into account, according to Russian media.
Russian courts convict more than 99 percent of defendants, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they consider too lenient.
Americans getting arrested in Russia has become increasingly common in recent years, sparking concern that the Kremlin is targeting U.S. nationals to use as bargaining chips in negotiations to bring back Russians being held in the West.
The same day Hubbard was sent down, a court in the southwestern city of Voronezh sentenced another American, Robert Gilman, to seven years and one month for assaulting law enforcement officers while already serving a sentence for assault.
Gilman, a veteran of the US Marine Corps, was arrested in 2022 for causing a disturbance while drunk on a passenger train, and then assaulting a police officer while in custody.
He was serving a three-year-and-six-month sentence for those charges when, last year, he attacked a prison inspector during a cell check before then hitting an official of the Investigative Committee, resulting in the new sentence, according to state news agency RIA-Novosti.
In August, Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner swap since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The multinational prisoner swap was mediated by Turkey and involved 24 prisoners between the United States, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia on one side and Russia and Belarus on the other.
Moscow freed 15 people in the exchange, including Americans, Germans, and Russian dissidents. Belarus released a German national as well.
In exchange for the release of journalists and activists, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russia received the three Russian agents, as well as five more people who were either accused of being spies or convicted of financial and cybercrimes.
Even after that historic swap, several U.S. citizens remain behind Russian bars.
