A 72-year-old American citizen was sentenced Monday to nearly seven years in a Russian prison for allegedly fighting as a mercenary on behalf of Ukraine.
Stephen Hubbard, originally from Michigan, is reportedly the first American known to have been convicted in Russia of battling its troops in Ukraine.
He'd faced a maximum sentence of 15 years but prosecutors said he deserved leniency due to his age and admission of guilt, according to the Associated Press.
Hubbard was reportedly captured by Russian soldiers on April 2, 2022, about five weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russian state media said he pleaded guilty after prosecutors accused him of getting paid $1,000 a month to serve with the Ukrainian military, according to Reuters.
He allegedly signed up to defend the eastern city of Izyum, where he'd been living since 2014.
But his sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, disputed the allegations, telling Reuters last month that Hubbard never owned a gun and was "more of a pacifist."
"RUSSIA's prosecutor is LYING!!! Steve was never a mercenary. He was an English teacher teaching English in foreign countries!" Fox also wrote on Facebook, according to CNN.
On Monday, Hubbard sat in a glass cage in a Moscow courtroom before standing with apparent difficulty to hear the judge pronounce him guilty and impose his sentence, Reuters said.
The six-year, 10-month term will be served in a "general regime colony" and Hubbard will receive credit for time served, Russia's state-owned Tass news agency said.
During another court proceeding in the city of Voronezh, another American, Robert Gilman, was sentenced to seven years and 1 month in prison for allegedly assaulting officials while serving a 3 1/2-year term stemming from a 2022 disturbance on a passenger train, AP said.
Arrests of Americans have become increasingly common in Russia, raising concerns that they're being targeted for use as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges, according to AP.
In August, the U.S. and Russia conducted the largest swap since the Soviet era.
That deal freed 24 people, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, and Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Russia got back seven agents, including Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of former Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park.
