American Pensioner, 72, Pleads Guilty in Russia to Fighting for Ukraine

A 72-year-old American pensioner on Monday pleaded guilty in a Moscow court to mercenary-related charges, admitting he was paid to fight for Ukraine against Russia, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

“Yes, I agree with the indictment,” the man, identified by Reuters as Stephen James Hubbard, reportedly said at the hearing.

The prosecutor in the case alleged that Hubbard signed a contract in February 2022 with a territorial defense unit in Izyum, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, that paid at least one thousand dollars per month. That month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, later illegally annexing four of the country’s regions.

The prosecutor further alleged that Hubbard underwent combat training, was given weapons, and “participated in armed conflict.” He was detained by a Russian serviceman in April 2022, RIA reported.

The maximum punishment under the criminal code used to charge him is 15 years imprisonment.

RIA reported last week that Hubbard, a Michigan native, moved to Ukraine in 2014. The Moscow Times pointed to a May Facebook post by a woman originally from Michigan named Tricia Hubbard Fox. She said her brother, Stephen James Hubbard, was “kidnapped” by Chechen soldiers in Ukraine “nearly three years ago,” alleging they beat him on video.

In an interview with Reuters, Fox said her sibling had worked overseas for decades as an English teacher, including in Cyprus and Japan. She denied that he was a mercenary and said he was too old for war.

“He is so non-military,” Fox told the news agency. “He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that…He’s more of a pacifist.” She reaffirmed that he’d moved to Ukraine in 2014 and lived with a woman there for a time, relying on a small pension.

In May 2022, a video began circulating on Telegram featuring an interview with a man identifying himself as Stephen James Hubbard, according to RIA. The state news agency said the circumstances in which that interview were filmed are “unknown.”

A spokesperson for the United States embassy to Russia in Moscow told The Moscow Times last week that it was aware an American citizen was in detention, but offered no additional comment.

Arrests of Americans by Russian authorities have become more and more common as relations following Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have sunk relations between the two countries back to Cold War lows.

Earlier this year, 33-year-old Russian-American Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison for donating $50 to a Ukrainian-American charity. Russia freed wrongfully detained American reported Evan Gershkovich and others in August in the largest prisoner swap deal since the Cold War era that also sent a Russian assassin back to Moscow.