Latest news with #mercenary
ABC News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Putin's Sledgehammer
In 2023, the disgraced chief of the mercenary Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin, took off in his private jet from Moscow airport. The flight did not last long. Nine people died with him when the plane – it seems – blew up in midair. A few weeks earlier, Prigozhin had led his mercenaries fighting in Ukraine on a march towards Moscow. Vladimir Putin did not pretend to mourn his death. So what's been the fate of the Wagner Group? GUEST: Candace Rondeaux, Senior Director for the Future Frontlines program at New America, and author, 'Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos'. Candace Rondeaux, Senior Director for the Future Frontlines program at New America, and author, 'Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos'. PRODUCER: Ali Benton
Russia Today
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia places US mercenary chief on terror list
American mercenary and former US Army National Guardsman Ryan David O'Leary, who fought on Ukraine's behalf, has been placed on Russia's list of terrorists and extremists. The respective entry appeared on the list maintained by Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service over the weekend. The designation carries various repercussions, including an asset freeze, heavy restriction of access to banking services, and other restrictions. O'Leary, the leader of the so-called 'Chosen Company' mercenary group, got onto the radar of Russian law enforcement last year over the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk Region. He is wanted for assorted crimes, ranging from illegally entering the country to committing acts of terror against civilians. The 'Chosen Company' was formed in February 2022, immediately after the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into a full-blown war. The mercenary unit was originally known as the 312th Swedish Volunteer Company and led by Swedish military veteran Edvard Selander Patrignani, who was killed in action later that year. After his death, O'Leary took over, while the unit evolved into a broader group for mercenaries from Western nations. The unit has been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes during the conflict. Last July, for instance, former German mercenary field medic Caspar Grosse spoke to the New York Times, detailing multiple instances of the fighters with the company executing wounded and surrendering Russian servicemen, as well as POWs already taken into custody. Grosse claimed he had reported the incidents to O'Leary, who flatly denied that his 'brothers' had committed any war crimes. Over the past few months, however, O'Leary grew increasingly critical of the Ukrainian military, accusing it of inept leadership and using its soldiers as cannon fodder. Earlier this month, the mercenary chief claimed he had disbanded the 'Chosen Company', stating he was no longer willing to participate in the conflict. Announcing the decision, O'Leary claimed that 'leading people to slaughter for no reason' was purportedly against his 'belief and values.' He also accused Ukrainian military higher-ups of behaving like a privileged 'caste,' more concerned about their own benefits than anything else. O'Leary bemoaned the Ukrainian command style, claiming that the unit had lost more men to 'poor leadership and Soviet thinking' than to direct actions of the Russian military.
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
From a Russian prison, US schoolteacher tells lawyers he was grabbed by Moscow's soldiers
LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - A 73-year-old American jailed by Russia as a mercenary for Ukraine protested his innocence when his U.S.-based legal team and family finally tracked him down in April, months after he vanished into the vast Russian prison system, they said. Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced last October to almost seven years in a penal colony after a court found him guilty of serving in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit against Russian forces, tasked with manning a checkpoint. Russian state media reported that he had entered a guilty plea in the closed-door trial. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not been granted consular access to Hubbard, a State Department spokesperson said, adding that U.S. officials have requested his immediate release. Martin De Luca, his U.S.-based lawyer, told Reuters it was not until this April that his legal team learned Hubbard was being held in a facility in the Mordovia region, east of Moscow. "The first thing Hubbard wanted to talk about when he was able to make contact with the outside world was: 'It's not true,'" said De Luca, who made his first public comments on the case to the New York Times this week. "They (Russian soldiers) grabbed him from his house. He was not in any combat or military unit", De Luca recalled Hubbard saying. Joseph Coleman, a son from Hubbard's first marriage who lives in Cyprus, said he spoke to his father in prison by phone for less than five minutes on May 28. "He did sound a little down," Coleman told Reuters. "He said, 'I'm tired of being a slave.'" At least eight other Americans are currently imprisoned in Russia, which has stepped up arrests of alleged mercenaries for Ukraine since its 2022 invasion of its neighbour. But Hubbard is the only one designated by the U.S. as "wrongfully detained," making him a top candidate to be returned in any future prisoner exchange. The Kremlin said last month the two sides were discussing a possible swap involving nine people on each side. A document written on the letterhead of the IK-12 penal colony, signed by a prison official and seen by Reuters, says that Hubbard is incarcerated there. Russia's federal prison service did not respond to an emailed request for confirmation from Reuters. Other U.S. citizens previously jailed in Russia have been incarcerated in the same region. Hubbard, a Michigan native who taught English abroad for decades, had moved to Izium in eastern Ukraine in 2014 to be with a Ukrainian girlfriend, but by 2022 he was living there alone, his family said. Russian forces captured Izium in April 2022. After his arrest, his family struggled to establish what had happened to him. They caught glimpses of him in videos posted online in pro-war Russian Telegram channels. One showed what appeared to be a staged interrogation. In another, Hubbard appeared with his hands zip-tied and whimpered as a man slapped him with a plastic sandal. His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, identified her brother in both videos in conversations with Reuters. The agency could not verify when and where the videos were taken. "He is so non-military," Hubbard Fox told Reuters last year, expressing doubt that her brother would have taken up arms for any state. "He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that... He's more of a pacifist." After Hubbard's trial, De Luca and his team at a U.S. law firm began working to secure his release. They picked up the case in late February. It wasn't easy to find him, De Luca said. "Russia is still a functioning country. There are laws, bureaucracies, processes that get followed," he said. The team located Hubbard at the penal colony in Molochnitsa, a very small town about a seven-hour drive from Moscow. De Luca said the team has been able to call Hubbard three times since April. He described him as weak after months living in a prisoner-of-war camp.
New York Times
10-06-2025
- New York Times
U.S. Teacher Seized by Russia Is Located in Prison
After months without contact, Stephen James Hubbard, a retired American teacher taken from his eastern Ukrainian home by Russian soldiers shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022, has been located in a Russian prison in Mordovia. His family had no information on his whereabouts since his criminal conviction last fall. But in recent weeks, he has been able to call one of his sons. Mr. Hubbard is the only American remaining in Russia who has been designated by the U.S. State Department as 'wrongfully detained,' an indication that the United States believes the charges against him are fabricated. Given the designation, he is likely a top candidate in any potential prisoner exchange being discussed between Russia and the United States. Mr. Hubbard, now 73, was accused of manning a checkpoint and fighting for Ukraine, and then convicted by Russia of being a mercenary last October and sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony. After that, Mr. Hubbard's family was not able to find him in Russia's prison system. In a highly unusual move, the Russian judge removed his case file, even basic information like his lawyer's name, from public view. Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Hubbard is being held in the IK-12 penal colony in Mordovia, the southwestern Russian region commonly referred to as 'prison land.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Daily Mail
05-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
U.S. trans mercenary who fought for Ukraine handed 20-year jail term for 'spreading fake news'
Russia has sentenced a U.S. trans woman who fought for Ukraine to 20 years in prison. Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, 47, was found guilty Tuesday of being a mercenary for Kyiv 's forces and spreading fake news about Russia's forces. The former journalist had been volunteering as a medic for Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) and briefly served as its spokesperson. She was found guilty by the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic in occupied Ukraine. Ashton-Cirillo traveled to Ukraine shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 to cover the conflict as a war correspondent for the U.S. publication LGBTQ Nation. Within a matter of months, she resigned her post and volunteered to join the Ukrainian army, fighting as part of Kharkiv's 113th Territorial Defense Brigade, and was made a junior sergeant. In 2023 she withdrew from the frontline, having suffered injuries amid a Russian artillery attack on her unit's position, and was appointed as an English-language spokesperson for the TDF. In this role, she launched a YouTube show entitled Russia Hates The Truth which she reviewed and debunked Moscow's disinformation campaigns, catching the eye of Russian media controllers. Russian authorities added Ashton-Cirillo to a 'register of extremists and terrorists' and opened a criminal case against her in 2024, months after she said Russian journalists affiliated with state media would be 'hunted down.' She was sentenced in absentia by the court in Donetsk, meaning that she would be liable to face the full jail term if captured by Russian forces. Ashton-Cirillo courted controversy in August 2023 after her work with the Ukrainian TDF was brought to the attention of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who at the time was a Republican senator. Vance penned a letter to then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines in which he accused the junior sergeant of threatening 'physical violence to anyone who circulates Russian propaganda' during a video message she had made while in post. He also wanted to know whether Ashton-Cirillo was being 'compensated using American resources' and questioned whether U.S. officials had 'reason to believe Ukrainian forces or intelligence services are planning to commit acts of violence against those who engage in "Russian propaganda." ' But Ashton-Cirillo went on to release a follow-up video amid Vance's speculation in which she told viewers that 'Russian devils' would 'pay for their crimes,' with Ukrainian TDF branding in the background. The release of the clip coincided with a visit to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and was not approved by the Ukrainian TDF, leading to her suspension. Speaking to in 2023, Ashton-Cirillo admitted she had not sought approval from her superiors before posting her response to Vance. 'Russia Hates The Truth doesn't require anything to be vetted - I and the TDF team have editorial control over that. 'It's meant to be as over the top as possible. 'It was my response to Senator Vance in uniform in front of the TDF logo without approval which was the reason for my suspension. 'I told my team that I was going to do it, but given that it was something as sensitive as a response to a U.S. Senator in a public setting, it needed to be approved. 'I couldn't believe it that there was a U.S. Senator trying to unmask me. 'It wasn't my message to him that was a problem, it was that President Zelensky was on a trip to the U.S. at the time and I probably should have held back in responding.' She was later cleared of wrongdoing and reinstated, but quickly moved into another unspecified role in Ukraine's Armed Forces. Ashton-Cirillo remains in Ukraine as of May 2025 and is engaged in promoting fundraising and crowdfunding campaigns to help Ukrainian soldiers wounded on the frontlines. The Russian-controlled court took umbrage with Ashton-Cirillo's vow to 'hunt down' Russian state-affiliated journalists and allegations that Russian forces had used biological weapons in operations in Ukraine and Syria. A court statement on the ruling against Ashton-Cirillo was published yesterday. It reads: 'The Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic has issued a verdict in absentia in the criminal case against 47-year-old U.S. citizen Sarah Ashton-Cirillo. 'She was found guilty under paragraph 'd' of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), Part 3 of Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict). 'The court established that... the mercenary arrived in Ukraine, voluntarily joined the International Legion, and was then assigned to the 113th Territorial Defense Brigade of Ukraine. 'She underwent military training at training bases and was provided with firearms, ammunition, uniforms, and special equipment. Ashton-Cirillo took part in combat operations on the side of the Ukrainian security forces against servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. 'In August 2023, she prepared a video story, which she posted on the Internet, about the alleged stockpiles of biological weapons created in Russia and the use of chemical weapons by the Russian Armed Forces in the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as on the territory of Ukraine during a special military operation. 'The mercenary has been placed on an international wanted list, and the court has chosen a preventive measure in the form of detention in absentia against her. 'Taking into account the position of the state prosecutor, the court sentenced Ashton-Cirillo in absentia to 20 years of imprisonment to be served in a general regime penal colony.'
