American Held 4.5 Years In Russian Jails Was Beaten And Shocked, Ex-Cellmates Say

Two Ukrainians who shared prison wings with American Stephen Hubbard say Russian guards beat, shocked and humiliated him over the four and a half years he spent in Russian custody before his release this week.

Hubbard, 74, a retired English teacher, was captured in April 2022 when Russian forces occupied Izyum, the eastern Ukrainian city where he lived with his Ukrainian partner. He was accused of serving in Ukraine's armed forces, convicted at a trial in Moscow and sentenced to six years and 10 months. Dmytro Khyliuk, a journalist, met him in September 2022 at Novozybkov prison in Bryansk, near the Ukrainian border. Ihor Shyshko, a captured Ukrainian soldier, was held with him as well, and both said guards focused on his nationality from his first days inside.

"They came during inspections and were asking: in which cell is the American?" Khyliuk said. He added that guards used obscene words, threatened him and mocked him from the start. Shyshko said Hubbard was made to learn Russian, sing the national anthem and recite prison schedule rules he could not read. Shyshko said he saw guards beat Hubbard on the legs, back and arms and shock him with a stun gun, and that Hubbard was denied food, medical care and warmth.

Khyliuk said he could hear Hubbard's complaints from neighbouring cells and that guards increasingly called him to the prison doctor. He described broken windows and bitter cold at Novozybkov, with detainees using time outside their cells to huddle in the bathroom for warmth. The two Ukrainians were held with Hubbard while he awaited trial, and their accounts match statements by his family that he was tortured in prison.

The men met him again at Pakino, where Shyshko described rot on his knees and feet. "There was not a single spot on his knees or on his feet without rot," he said. Shyshko said he bandaged Hubbard at the medical centre after a doctor refused to, and that Hubbard was weak and barely able to move. The diet was porridge, bread and potatoes, and the routine included beatings, forced running and stress positions. Shyshko also said a handler set a dog on prisoners to bite them.

Khyliuk said that soon after the transfer to Pakino, Hubbard was moved out of sight of visiting International Red Cross staff. "They saw only what was shown to them and they were happy with that," he said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that wherever it is granted access, it asks to see every individual and assess their conditions, and that it continues talks with the parties to the conflict on the issue.

Khyliuk said Hubbard disappeared from the prison in 2024 and he assumed he had been released. Khyliuk returned to Ukraine in August 2025 in a prisoner exchange. Russia released Hubbard on the day US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to discuss the war in Ukraine, and President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin in a phone call the previous week to free him. Khyliuk said he was glad Hubbard was free, noting that "it was not his war," while Shyshko said: "Evil must be punished, and so it will be."}

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