Beaten, electrocuted and humiliated: fellow prisoners describe torture of freed US citizen Stephen Hubbard in Russian jail

Stephen Hubbard, the US citizen recently freed from a Russian prison, was regularly beaten, electrocuted with a stun gun and sexually humiliated during his detention, according to two former Ukrainian prisoners who were held alongside him. Their accounts offer the first detailed picture of his four years behind bars.

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 and says his nationality marked him out: guards mocked him and forced him to learn Russian, sing the national anthem and repeat the prison schedule rules, which he could not even read.

Hubbard was captured in April 2022, when Russian soldiers occupied the eastern city of Izyum, where he was living with his Ukrainian partner. He was accused of serving in Ukraine's armed forces and convicted in a Moscow trial, receiving a sentence of six years and 10 months. Shyshko and Khyliuk were held alongside him as he awaited trial.

Shyshko alleges guards beat Hubbard on the legs, back and arms and electrocuted him with a stun gun. 'They didn't give him food, they didn't give him medical care. They kept him in the cold.'

'He was always treated more harshly, because he was an American. They claimed he was a mercenary, and said let's beat him,' Shyshko said, alleging Hubbard was also subjected to sexual humiliation and abuse for the entertainment of prison staff.

The two men's accounts corroborate statements from Hubbard's family, who had long said he was being tortured in prison.

The 74-year-old was released by the Kremlin after four and a half years, on the day US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg to discuss the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin to free Hubbard during a phone call the week before.

Notably, Witkoff praised the Russian president as a 'humanitarian', despite the ongoing full-scale invasion and daily Russian attacks across Ukraine.

Khyliuk said he knew Hubbard's health was declining over the months they were initially held in nearby cells — he heard his complaints and the guards calling him more often to the prison doctor. At Novozybkov, broken windows and biting cold forced detainees to huddle together in the bathroom for warmth.

'It was very difficult conditions in Novozybkov, worse than in the next prison. It was very cold there in winter, terribly cold,' said Khyliuk, a journalist detained in the earliest days of the invasion as Russian troops advanced towards Kyiv.

At their next prison, Pakino, both men encountered the retired English teacher again, where Shyshko says his condition worsened. 'There was not a single spot on his knees or on his feet without rot. Everything was rotten. We all had scabies. It was very, very difficult for him.'

Shyshko said he once bandaged Hubbard himself at the medical centre because the doctor did not want to do it. 'He just couldn't do it himself, and I had to help. He was quite weak then and he almost couldn't move.'

They detailed a harsh regime and a meagre diet of porridge, bread and potatoes, with a daily routine of beatings and humiliation — being forced to run or hold stress positions. 'There is a handler with a dog, who lets go so it can bite you on the buttocks, on the elbow, or bite your leg. Then these wounds fester very badly,' Shyshko said.

Khyliuk claimed that soon after their transfer to Pakino, Hubbard was hidden to conceal his condition from visiting International Red Cross teams. 'An international humanitarian organisation that receives a lot of funding could do better. They saw only what was shown to them and they were happy with that,' he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that 'in any situation where the ICRC has been granted access, we request to see every individual and assess the conditions they are held in. We continue our discussions with parties to the conflict on this issue.'

Khyliuk said Hubbard disappeared from the prison in 2024 and he assumed he must have been released. Khyliuk himself was returned to Ukraine in August 2025 in a prisoner exchange.

Likening their treatment to the regime of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Khyliuk said: 'Russian captivity is a torture machine. From the first second of your detention, they do everything to suppress you, to intimidate you. This is torture in all its manifestations, from psychological to physical — beatings, hunger, cold, lack of any information, lack of the opportunity to communicate even with other prisoners.'

Pleased to see Hubbard finally released and heading home, Khyliuk added: 'I understand what it is like to be in terrible captivity. Moreover, it was not his war. He ended up in the wrong place and at the wrong time.' But he described the timing as 'shameful PR of the US president, who is losing votes in elections to Congress'.

Shyshko said he hoped one day their torturers would face justice: 'Evil must be punished, and so it will be. I have hope for that.'

Altogether, these testimonies will deepen international concern over the treatment of detainees in Russian prisons. Hubbard is now on his way back to the US, but his four years of captivity stand as a grim testimony to the human cost of the war.