Stephen James Hubbard, a 72-year-old American citizen, pleaded guilty in a Moscow court today to serving as an anti-Russian mercenary in the war in Ukraine, state news agency RIA reported.

Hubbard’s sister and another relative immediately cast doubt on his alleged confession, telling Reuters he had pro-Russian views and was unlikely to pick up a gun at his age.

RIA reports that Hubbard admitted during the Moscow court hearing that he received money to fight on behalf of Ukraine against Russia.

“Yes, I accept the indictmenthe said, according to RIA.

Hubbard was jailed for six months last week. He faces seven to 15 years in prison if convicted.

RIA, citing a court prosecutor, said Hubbard had signed a contract with a Ukrainian unit in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium at the start of the war in February 2022.

The prosecution said he was promised $1,000 a month and provided with training, weapons and ammunition. RIA quoted the prosecutor as saying that Hubbard was arrested by Russian soldiers on April 2 of that year, a few weeks after the war began.

Reuters was unable to confirm how Hubbard was arrested. His attorney was not immediately available. Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Hubbard’s sister, Patricia Fox, last spoke with him in September 2021, via Skype. He disputed his reported confession. “He’s never had a gun, he’s never owned a gun, he’s never done any of that… He’s more of a pacifist,” he told Reuters by phone.

His pro-Russian views

Hubbard is one of at least 10 Americans in Russian prisons, nearly two months after an Aug. 1 prisoner swap between Moscow and the West that freed three Americans and dozens of others.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Moscow said last week that it was aware of the detention of an American citizen, but declined to comment further.

Born in the small town of Big Rapids, Michigan, Hubbard worked for decades as an English teacher abroad, including in Japan and Cyprus, his sister said.

Fox said Hubbard moved to Ukraine in 2014 and lived there for a time with a Ukrainian woman, surviving on a small pension. When she last spoke to him, he had broken up with his girlfriend and was living alone in Izium, she said.

Fox said she had received little information about her brother’s condition for months until a video surfaced online.

The video, posted to YouTube in May 2022 by an account with just over 100 followers, showed a bearded man in a brown jacket sitting facing the camera and answering questions from an English-speaking interviewer. with an accent.

It’s unclear when or where the video in question was taken, but Fox identified the man as her brother.

In the video, the man says he understands why President Vladimir Putin is sending troops into Ukraine and hopes the war will end soon.