Former Ukrainian prisoners say freed US citizen was tortured in Russian jail
Two former Ukrainian prisoners say guards beat and humiliated US citizen Stephen Hubbard while they were held alongside him in Russian prisons. Their accounts match statements by Hubbard's family that he was tortured.
Two Ukrainians who were jailed with US citizen Stephen Hubbard in Russian prisons say they saw guards beat and humiliate him. Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired English teacher, was freed after about four and a half years in Russian detention. He was released on the day US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to discuss the war in Ukraine. Witkoff described Putin as a "humanitarian". US President Donald Trump has said he asked Putin to free Hubbard in a phone call the week before.
Capture and trial
Hubbard was captured in April 2022, when Russian forces occupied the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, where he lived with his Ukrainian partner. He was accused of serving in Ukraine's armed forces, tried in Moscow and sentenced to six years and 10 months.
The prisoners' accounts
Journalist Dmytro Khyliuk first met Hubbard in September 2022 at the Novozybkov prison in Russia's Bryansk region, near the Ukrainian border. He says guards threatened and mocked the American from the first days. Ihor Shyshko, a captured Ukrainian soldier, alleges Hubbard was beaten on the legs, back and arms, shocked with a stun gun, denied food and medical care, and kept in the cold. According to him, Hubbard was forced to learn Russian, sing the Russian anthem and repeat prison rules. Shyshko also alleges Hubbard was subjected to sexual humiliation for the entertainment of staff.
Both men later met Hubbard again at Pakino prison, where, Shyshko says, his condition worsened: his knees and feet were rotting and he could barely move. Khyliuk claims Hubbard was hidden from visiting representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC said that wherever it has access, it asks to see every individual and assess their conditions, and that it continues discussions with the parties to the conflict.
Khyliuk returned to Ukraine in August 2025 in a prisoner exchange. He called the timing of Hubbard's release "shameful PR" by the US president, but said he was glad Hubbard was heading home to the US. Shyshko said he hopes the torturers will one day face justice.
