Former Ukrainian prisoners say freed American Stephen Hubbard was beaten and humiliated in Russian jails

Dmytro Khyliuk says he first learned of Stephen Hubbard's presence in the Novozybkov prison, in Russia's Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border, through the guards. In September 2022, he recalls, they came through on inspections asking which cell held the American, then hurled obscenities and threats at him. The mockery, he says, began in the first days.

Hubbard, now 74, has been released after about four and a half years in Russian custody. Two Ukrainians who were held alongside him, Khyliuk and Ihor Shyshko, have now described to the BBC what they say they saw and heard. Their accounts line up with what Hubbard's family has said: that he was tortured.

Hubbard is a retired English teacher. He was captured in April 2022, when Russian soldiers occupied the eastern city of Izyum, where he lived with his Ukrainian partner. He was accused of serving in Ukraine's armed forces and convicted at a trial in Moscow, receiving a sentence of six years and 10 months. Khyliuk and Shyshko were held with him while he awaited that trial. Khyliuk is a journalist who was detained in the earliest days of the invasion, as Russian troops advanced on Kyiv. Shyshko is a captured Ukrainian soldier.

Shyshko says Hubbard's nationality marked him out. Guards forced him to learn Russian, sing the Russian national anthem and recite the prison schedule, which he could not read. Shyshko says he saw and heard guards beat Hubbard on the legs, back and arms, and use a stun gun on him. Food and medical care were withheld, he says, and Hubbard was kept in the cold. Guards called him a mercenary and said they should beat him. Shyshko also alleges that Hubbard was sexually humiliated and abused for the entertainment of prison staff.

Khyliuk says he could tell Hubbard's health was failing in those first months, when they were in nearby cells. He heard Hubbard's complaints, and the guards summoned him to the prison doctor more and more often. Khyliuk describes broken windows and bitter cold at Novozybkov, where detainees used their time out of the cells to huddle together in the bathroom for warmth. It was worse there, he says, than at the next prison.

Both men met Hubbard again at that next prison, Pakino, where Shyshko says his condition deteriorated further. He describes rot on Hubbard's knees and feet, and says everyone had scabies. Once, at the medical centre, Shyshko bandaged Hubbard himself because the doctor refused. By then Hubbard was weak and could barely move. The two describe a diet of porridge, bread and potatoes, and a daily routine of beatings, forced running and stress positions. Shyshko also describes a handler letting a dog bite prisoners on the buttocks, elbows and legs, leaving wounds that fester badly.

Khyliuk claims that soon after the transfer to Pakino, Hubbard was hidden from visiting International Red Cross staff so they would not see his condition. He says the organisation, which receives a lot of funding, could do better, and that inspectors saw only what they were shown. 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 on the issue. Khyliuk says Hubbard vanished from the prison in 2024, and he assumed he had been freed. Khyliuk himself came home to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange in August 2025.

Hubbard's release came the same day US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to discuss the war. Witkoff praised Putin as a "humanitarian" despite the continuing invasion and daily Russian attacks. President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin to free Hubbard in a call the week before. Khyliuk is glad Hubbard is going to the US, saying it was not his war and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he called the timing "shameful PR" by a president losing votes ahead of Congressional elections. Shyshko says he hopes the torturers will one day face justice.