Russian court sentences a 72-year-old American to nearly seven years for fighting in Ukraine

A Russian courtroom sentenced 72-year-old American Stephen Hubbard to round seven years in jail on Monday for allegedly combating as a mercenary in Ukraine.

Hubbard, from Michigan, was accused of signing a contract with the Ukrainian army after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and taking part within the combating till his seize two months later. 

He acquired a sentence of six years and 10 months in a normal safety jail regardless of prosecutors initially requesting seven years in a maximum-security facility. 

Hubbard is the primary US citizen convicted of combating as a mercenary within the Ukrainian battle. Though the costs may have carried a 15-year sentence, Russian information shops reported that prosecutors thought-about his age and request for forgiveness of their sentencing advice. 

Moscow routinely treats all overseas fighters in Ukrainian items as mercenaries, regardless of overseas fighters becoming a member of volunteer battalions being integrated as common members of both the Ukrainian Military or the Nationwide Guard of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin has insisted on allegations that overseas fighters in Ukraine are by and huge mercenaries, usually with far-right or prison backgrounds, as a part of its bigger narrative depicting the federal government in Kyiv as nefarious or “Nazi,” allegations it by no means supplied any proof for.

Russians make up the most important variety of overseas nationals combating within the Ukrainian armed forces, whereas US residents are believed to account for a minor fraction, with simply 15 reported to be part of the combating previous to Moscow’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

This case is a part of a rising pattern of American arrests in Russia, elevating considerations that US nationals could also be focused as potential leverage for future prisoner swaps. 

In a separate case on Monday, one other US citizen, Robert Gilman, was sentenced to seven years and one month for assaulting regulation enforcement officers.

Gilman, who was already serving a sentence for a separate assault, allegedly attacked a jail inspector and an official throughout a cell examine final 12 months. 

These instances comply with a serious US-Russia prisoner swap in August, the most important because the collapse of the Soviet Union, which concerned 24 people and a number of nations. Whatever the trade, a number of US residents stay incarcerated in Russia.