斯蒂芬·哈伯德的妹妹表示，这位在俄罗斯监狱度过四年多后于周三获释的美国公民，直到被带上飞机并看到美国国旗时，才意识到自己正在获释。
The younger sister of Stephen Hubbard, the U.S. citizen freed after spending more than four years in a Russian prison, said her brother didn’t realize he was being released until he was taken onto a plane and saw an American flag.
莱坎·奥耶坎米、托马斯·派珀特 圣安东尼奥 —— 斯蒂芬·哈伯德的妹妹表示，这位在俄罗斯监狱度过四年多后于周三获释的美国公民，直到被带上飞机并看到美国国旗时，才意识到自己正在获释。
LEKAN OYEKANMI, THOMAS PEIPERT SAN ANTONIO — The younger sister of Stephen Hubbard, the U.S. citizen freed Wednesday after spending more than four years in a Russian prison, said her brother didn’t realize he was being released until he was put aboard a plane and saw the American flag.
“他在被带离监狱前往莫斯科时不知道原因，他可能以为自己要去送死了，”帕特里夏·哈伯德·福克斯周四在圣安东尼奥接受采访时说，她的哥哥被带到那里进行评估。
“He didn’t know why he was being taken from the prison to Moscow, and he may have thought he was going to his death,” Patricia Hubbard Fox said during an interview Thursday in San Antonio, where her brother was taken for evaluation.
“他在不停地笑，”她补充道，“像是如释重负的笑。‘哦我的天，你知道的，我自由了。这真的是在发生。’”特朗普总统表示，他本月初在一次通话中曾请求俄罗斯总统普京释放哈伯德。哈伯德现年74岁，是来自密歇根州的退休教师。他被指控在俄罗斯2022年全面入侵乌克兰后，与基辅部队并肩作战。2024年，他在不公开的庭审中被判处近七年监禁。
“He’s been kind of laughing a lot,” she added. “Like relief laughing. ‘Oh my God, you know, I’m free. This is really happening.’”President Donald Trump said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call earlier this month to free Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan. Hubbard was accused of fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. In 2024, he was sentenced in closed court proceedings to nearly seven years in prison.
拜登政府曾认定哈伯德遭到任意拘留，他的法律团队也对俄罗斯的指控提出异议，称他未参与任何军事活动。
The U.S. government under the Biden administration had designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained, and his legal team also disputed the Russian allegation, saying he was not involved in any military activity.
哈伯德·福克斯说，她哥哥在狱中遭受饥饿和严重殴打，以至于一些来自乌克兰的狱友不得不抬着他走。
Hubbard Fox said her brother was starved and beaten so severely in prison that some of his fellow inmates from Ukraine had to carry him.
“他们唯一会说的英语就是‘去死吧，美国佬。去死吧，’”她谈到俄罗斯看守时说。“这反而激起了他的倔强，让他不想死，你知道吗？‘我要让他们看看。’我为他感到无比自豪。”哈伯德曾是美国空军老兵，曾在海外教授英语，2012年退休后定居塞浦路斯，他的一个儿子在那里担任东正教神父。他的律师说，后来他搬到乌克兰与一位相识的女子同住，关系结束后仍留在该国。俄罗斯入侵乌克兰时，他正居住在那里。
“The only English they knew was ‘Die, American. Die,’” she said of the Russian guards. “And that just made him mad enough to not die, you know? ‘I’ll show them.’ I’m so proud of him.”Hubbard, a U.S. Air Force veteran, taught English overseas and retired in 2012 to Cyprus, where one of his sons is an Orthodox Christian priest. He later moved to Ukraine to be with a woman he had met, his lawyers said, and remained in the country after the relationship ended. He was living there at the time of Russia’s invasion.
哈伯德·福克斯说，直到一名乌克兰女子在一份囚犯名单上看到了她哥哥的名字并找到她，她才知道哥哥的下落。
Hubbard Fox said she didn’t know where her brother was until a woman in Ukraine tracked her down after seeing a prison roster with his name on it.
“上帝有时不会立即回应祈祷，但他总会回应我的祈祷，”哈伯德·福克斯说。“我说，‘耶稣，把他带回家。’”她在周三接受的另一采访中表示，哥哥很可能会来科罗拉多州和她同住，两人都期待着家庭团聚。
“God doesn’t answer prayers immediately sometimes, but he always answers my prayer,” Hubbard Fox said. “And I said, ‘Jesus, get him home.’”She said in a separate interview Wednesday that her brother would probably come live with her in Colorado, and they both were looking forward to a family reunion.