INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
When Ukrainian soldier Ihor Shyshko explained his two years of detention in Russia alongside 72-year-old U.S
person Stephen Hubbard, 3 words came to mind: abuse, embarrassment and hunger.After being held incommunicado for 2 and a half years, Hubbard
unexpectedly appeared in a Moscow court last month where he was sentenced in a closed trial to nearly 7 years behind bars for presumably
defending Ukraine.He was recorded in April 2022, simply weeks after Russia released the full-blown intrusion of Ukraine
Washington says it has just minimal information about his case since Russian authorities refused to share any details.On Sept
27, simply 10 days before the verdict was bied far, Russia announced for the first time that it had actually been holding Hubbard, who
appeared pale and frail in the court.Shyshko, on the other hand, was taken prisoner in May 2022 and launched in an exchange earlier this
AFP initially met him while he was undergoing psychological treatment in Ukraine in August, before Moscow exposed that Hubbard remained in
their custody.In different interviews with AFP in September and October, Shyshko recounted his detention along with Hubbard in 2 Russian
prisons.The two men were held in Novozybkov in the Bryansk area in western Russia from September 2022 to May 2023, in some cases in
They were then held in the Pakino chastening colony no
7 in the Vladimir area, some 270 kilometers (168 miles) east of Moscow, where they were cellmates for a time.The existence of an immigrant
among Ukrainian detainees of war was uncommon, Shyshko informed AFP
It wasnt extremely clear why he was there, said Shyshko, a 41-year-old with dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheeks who says he
invested 801 days in total in captivity.Shyshko stated Hubbard underwent the very same treatment as the Ukrainians: beaten, embarrassed and
starved by their guards, including that he personally saw abuse against Hubbard and sustained the same himself
They beat him all the time, like the rest of us, Shyshko stated of the jail guards treatment of Hubbard throughout an interview with AFP in
the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
They struck him with sticks and truncheons and kicked him
They attacked him with pets
They made him run, they didnt feed him, they made him crawl through the corridors, he added.The guards at Novozybkov intentionally
struck inmates genitals, Shyshko said, and forced prisoners, consisting of Hubbard, to mimic sexual acts with other inmates to embarrass
them.Shyshko said Hubbard, with whom he had some trouble interacting in English, had actually confided to him that he had been tortured in
Pakino by his Russian captors with electrical shocks.The released Ukrainian serviceman stated torture in Russian detention was regular,
showing scars on his hands and his listening devices required in the wake of beatings that damaged his ears.In an October 2024 report, the
United Nations accused Russia of committing widespread and methodical torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war.The Russian
Foreign Ministry did not react to requests for comment from AFP about Hubbards detention.Shyshkos account of the treatment he and other
inmates face in detention, nevertheless, is similar to the stories told by other former prisoners.Russian state media reported that Hubbard
was taken prisoner on April 2, 2022 throughout the Russian profession of Izium, a town in the northeast of Ukraine that was liberated months
later.Kremlin-funded news outlets, citing statement from the court, said Hubbard had actually relocated to Izium in 2014 to live with his
Ukrainian partner, a journey that the American recounted to his Ukrainian fellow prisoner.Moscow had actually implicated Hubbard of joining
a Ukrainian territorial defense battalion at the start of the Kremlins intrusion which he was paid at least $1,000 a month to
fight.Authorities in Kyiv informed AFP they had actually discovered no record of Hubbard having been among Ukrainian military systems
We havent discovered him on our lists, stated Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, head of the communications department of the Ukrainian Territorial
Defence Forces command and spokesman for the Ukrainian command in occupied parts of Russias Kursk region.Russian media reported that Hubbard
had pleaded guilty, but Shyshko explained him as simply a civilian
He was unable to run and would have been far too weak to carry a weapon, according to Shyshko
You see an old male in such poor health, how could you potentially see him as a soldier? Shyshko said that Hubbard had actually informed him
that he was come by Russian soldiers at a checkpoint in Izium
He added that the Russian soldiers saw that  Hubbard was carrying money and detained him.Hunger was one of the abuses suffered by the
detainees, Shyshko said, declaring the detainees there were intentionally malnourished and punitively rejected meals.Hubbard always had a
various viewpoint [from the guards] and did not do what they told him, Shyshko said.Shyshko claimed to have heard prison guards voicing
concerns about the potential for a scandal emerging in case of the death of a U.S
resident in Russian custody.The Ukrainian serviceman has actually been reunited with his partner and three children but copes with severe
mental and physical repercussions of his time invested in Russian detention.He said he would choose for Hubbard to be able to return home
and inform his own story.Shyshko told AFP he worries that Hubbard, who had actually lost a lot of weight, would not be able to hold out
for much longer, either physically or mentally.He is currently in between life and death, Shyshko said.A Message from The Moscow Times:
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