A US citizen has pleaded responsible in a Moscow court docket to prices of combating for Ukraine, marking the primary identified occasion of an American being tried as a mercenary in Russia.
Russian state media reported that Stephen James Hubbard, 72, of Michigan, had admitted he had obtained cash to battle for Ukraine towards Russia.
“Sure, I agree with the indictment,” the state information company Ria Novosti quoted him as saying in court docket on Monday.
The Kremlin-friendly Izvestia newspaper, citing a prosecutor in court docket, stated Hubbard was paid $1,000 (£750) after he signed a contract with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit within the japanese metropolis of Izium in February 2022.
He was captured by Russian forces in April 2022, based on the prosecutor, through the occupation of Izium by Russian troops. Town was later liberated by Ukrainian forces within the autumn of 2022.
If convicted of collaborating in mercenary actions, he may face as much as 15 years in jail.
Hubbard’s sister Patricia Fox denied her brother was a mercenary and stated he was too previous for fight. “He’s so non-military,” Fox advised Reuters. “He by no means had a gun, owned a gun, completed any of that … He’s extra of a pacifist.”
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In a public Fb group, Fox earlier stated that her brother had been “kidnapped up within the Ukraine” almost three years in the past.
Hubbard has reportedly spent a long time working overseas as an English trainer, together with in Japan, Cyprus and Ukraine, the place he was residing on the time of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Moscow stated final week that it was conscious of the detention of an American citizen, however declined additional remark.
Hubbard is one among a minimum of a dozen People behind bars in Russia. Arrests of People in Russia have change into more and more widespread as relations between the 2 international locations sink to chilly war-era lows. Washington has beforehand accused Moscow of utilizing US residents as bargaining chips for political leverage.
Hubbard is the primary identified US citizen to be tried in Russia on mercenary prices in relation to the battle in Ukraine.
In June 2022, two American males have been captured by Russian-backed separatist forces in Donbas whereas combating alongside Ukrainian forces throughout a battle north of Kharkiv. The boys have been later launched together with 5 British residents as a part of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine that was brokered by Saudi Arabia.
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