The Russian authorities, the only ones capable of doing so, did not respond to AFP’s questions and therefore did not confirm that the two men were detained together. Many other prisoners said they suffered mistreatment similar to that reported by Mr. Chychko.
According to the latter, the two men were incarcerated in Novozybkov, in the Bryansk region (western Russia) from September 2022 to May 2023. Sometimes, they were in neighboring cells.
Then, until spring 2024, they were in penal colony No. 7 in Pakino (Vladimir region, 270 km east of Moscow), where the two inmates shared the same cell for a while.
Before September 2022, Igor Chychko says he was detained in Stary Oskol, in Russia’s Belgorod region (west), and believes Mr. Hubbard was also there even though they did not meet there.
The presence of a foreigner among Ukrainian prisoners of war was unusual. “It wasn’t very clear what he was doing there,” said Igor Chychko, 41, with deep dark circles and sunken cheeks from the “801 days” he spent in captivity.
– Beaten and forced to crawl –
According to him, the American suffered the same ordeal as his unfortunate Ukrainian comrades: all were beaten, humiliated, starved by their guards, according to the soldier who says he was a direct witness to the abuse inflicted on Stephen Hubbard and having endured them himself.
“They beat him all the time, like all of us,” he said during a meeting in Kharkiv.
“They beat him with sticks, batons, kicks. They attacked him with dogs (…) they made him run, did not feed him, made him crawl in the corridors,” explains -it again.
Guards at Novozybkov “deliberately” beat inmates’ genitals, he said, and forced prisoners, including Mr. Hubbard, to “simulate” sexual acts with each other to humiliate them.
Mr. Chychko says that the septuagenarian, with whom he communicated as best he could in English, told him that he had been tortured using “electric shocks”.
These abuses allegedly took place during interrogations which the Ukrainian did not attend, but the ex-detainee notes that the torture was not exceptional, revealing his scars on his hands and his hearing aid, the ex-prisoner who partially lost his hearing as a result of the beatings.
In October, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk accused Russia of “widespread and systematic” use of torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to AFP’s questions about the conditions of Mr. Hubbard’s detention, as well as the manner and date on which the United States was informed of his detention.
According to the official version, presented at the old man’s trial and published by official Russian media, the American national was taken prisoner on April 2, 2022 during the occupation of Izyum, a town in northeastern Ukraine, liberated Since. He had lived there since 2014 with his Ukrainian partner. Mr. Hubbard recounted this journey to his fellow Ukrainian inmate.
According to his Russian accusers, Stephen Hubbard joined a Ukrainian territorial defense battalion at the start of the Russian invasion and was paid “at least $1,000 a month.”
– America, “incarnation of Evil” –
Questioned by AFP, the Ukrainian authorities indicated that they had no trace of the American within this component of the army.
“We did not find him on our lists,” assured Oleksiï Dmytrashkivsky head of the communications department of the command of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine and spokesperson for the command of the Ukrainian forces occupying part of the Russian region from Kursk.
According to Russian media, Mr. Hubbard pleaded guilty. According to Igor Chychko, the old man was “just a civilian.” “You see an old man in such poor health, how could you see him as a soldier?”
Mr. Chychko explains that according to Stephen Hubbard, the latter was arrested by Russian soldiers near a checkpoint in Izioum: “They understood (…) that he was American, that he had cash on him.”
Once in prison, Mr. Hubbard was mistreated despite his age by guards precisely because he was American, according to his fellow prisoner.
“Understand, for our guards, America is the incarnation of Evil. They are convinced that the Americans must be annihilated,” he emphasizes.
Among the abuses suffered by the detainees, hunger. According to Mr. Chychko, they were deliberately malnourished and deprived of meals in cases of indiscipline.
But Stephen Hubbard “did not do what they told him” to do, says Igor Chychko.
– “Doctor Death” –
In Pakino, “the conditions were terrible. I didn’t know that people swelled from hunger. And then we all started to swell, and various putrefactions appeared.”
Stephen Hubbard was also allegedly subjected to mistreatment by a doctor nicknamed “Doctor Death” due to his cruelty.
To “treat” scabies, this man forced inmates, including Stephen Hubbard, to remain naked in “cold and damp” rooms for stays that could last several weeks.
And Stephen Hubbard demanded to contact his family, the American or even Ukrainian authorities, says the soldier. He didn’t understand why the United States couldn’t “get him out of there.”
Washington and Moscow have carried out numerous prisoner exchanges, notably the one which led to the release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich in August.
But at the beginning of October, Washington accused Moscow of having “refused to grant consular access” to Stephen Hubbard, and said it had “only limited information” on his case.
Igor Chychko claims to have heard the prison guards, seeing his condition, worry about the scandal that the death of an American in a Russian prison could cause.
The former Ukrainian prisoner was reunited with his wife and three children, but lives with psychological and physical after-effects.
Today, he wishes his American companion could return home and tell his story himself.
According to Mr. Chychko, Mr. Hubbard will not be able to “keep up” for long physically and mentally. At this point, He is already “between life and death.”
