Freed US citizen was tortured in Russian jail, former Ukrainian prisoners say
Former Ukrainian prisoners have alleged that US citizen Stephen Hubbard was subjected to torture, humiliation, and abuse while detained in a Russian prison. Hubbard, who was captured in 2022, was recently released as part of a prisoner exchange.
Why it matters
These accounts provide further evidence of the treatment of foreign nationals and prisoners of war in Russian detention facilities during the ongoing conflict.
Image source, US Government / Handout via REUTERS Image caption, Stephen Hubbard (second from left in the first row) was flown back home on a US plane earlier this week
Ukrainians held alongside freed US prisoner Stephen Hubbard have said they witnessed him being beaten and humiliated by Russian guards during his four-year detention.
Dmytro Khyliuk first met Hubbard at the Novozybkov prison in Bryansk, not far from Russia's border with Ukraine, in September 2022.
"We heard it from the guards. They came during inspections and were asking: in which cell is the American? And then they used obscene words. They threatened him, they mocked him from the first days."
Ihor Shyshko also remembers Hubbard's arrival at the jail and says his nationality marked him out to the officers.
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