The Moscow City Court has placed a 72-year-old U.S. citizen in pretrial detention after prosecutors accused him of joining Ukrainian armed forces that are fighting to repel invading Russian troops, a charge that could see him imprisoned for at least seven years.
State media reported on September 27 that Stephen Hubbard, a native of Michigan, moved to the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine in 2014, where he lived with a local woman who later left him.
As his trial opened on September 27, prosecutors requested that the court keep Hubbard in detention, claiming that he poses a flight risk and may "continue criminal activities" if released.
The judge agreed with the prosecutors' request and ruled that Hubbard must stay in pretrial detention until at least March 26, 2025.
Hubbard's previous pretrial restrictions remain unknown as there were no reports or official statements about his arrest or how he ended up in Moscow.
"We are aware of the reports of the arrest of an American citizen. Due to privacy restrictions we are unable to comment any further," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement.
In late May 2022, three months after Russia launched its ongoing full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Telegram channels and media outlets close to the Russian government published a video with a man claiming to be Stephen James Hubbard, who said then that he and his partner moved to the town of Izyum in the Kharkiv region, where he witnessed Ukrainian armed forces "shelling Izyum for propaganda purposes and to create panic among local residents."
It was not clear in what circumstances and where the video was taken, but a woman with the Facebook profile of Trisha Hubbard Fox said in a May 27 post that her brother, Stephen James Hubbard, was "kidnapped in Ukraine nearly three years ago" and that there were two videos of him bound and being beaten by "Russian Chechen rebel soldiers."
SEE ALSO: 'They Remain In Torturous Conditions': The Prisoners Left Behind In Russia After Historic ExchangeMoscow has been accused of targeting U.S. citizens by detaining them on trumped-up charges to later use as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the United States and other Western nations.
Several U.S. citizens remain behind bars in Russia after a prisoner swap on August 1 involving 16 people that Moscow agreed to free in exchange for eight Russians convicted of crimes and serving prison terms in the United States and Europe.
U.S. citizens -- RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were among those released by Russia.