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 in the fall of 2024. But in recent weeks, he has been able to call one of his sons.

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.

Hubbard, 73, was accused of manning a checkpoint and fighting for Ukraine, and then convicted by Russia of being a mercenary in October and sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony.

After that, Hubbard’s family was not able to find him in Russia’s prison system. In an unusual move, the Russian judge removed his case file, including even basic information like his lawyer’s name, from public view.

Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that Hubbard is being held in the IK-12 penal colony in Mordovia, the southwestern Russian region commonly referred to as “prison land.”

In addition, sentencing documents reviewed by the Times, which have not been previously reported, outline the Russian case against Hubbard and its contention that he was fighting for Ukraine. Recent interviews with one of Hubbard’s sons and others, as well as text messages he exchanged with that son, contradict the Russian narrative.

Martin De Luca, a lawyer for Hubbard, said his team had talked to him three times since April. On May 28, Hubbard was allowed to call another son, who lives in Cyprus, De Luca and Hubbard’s sister said.

“He’s had a rough 3 1/2 years,” De Luca said.

Ukrainian prisoners of war who were held with Hubbard said he had been repeatedly tortured because he was an American — beaten, forced to stand all day, given little food and poor medical care. In interviews after being released, the Ukrainians said they feared for his life. He is the only American known to have been taken from Ukraine and jailed in Russia.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. officials have raised Hubbard’s imprisonment with Russian officials and asked that he be released, a U.S. official recently said. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not been granted access to Hubbard, the official said, despite Russia’s obligation under international law to do so. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Hubbard grew up in Michigan, served in the Air Force in California, married young and divorced. He then married a Japanese woman he met in Washington state and moved to Japan, where he taught English. Eventually, the couple divorced.

In 2012, Hubbard retired to Cyprus, the home of Joseph Coleman, a son from his first marriage. That is where Hubbard met a Ukrainian woman named Inna, following her to the eastern city of Izium. He earned money by teaching English to a few Japanese students online.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked two Ukrainian cities with waves of drones and missiles early Tuesday, killing three people and wounding at least 13 in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “one of the biggest” strikes in the 3-year-old war. The attack struck Kyiv and the southern port city of Odesa.

In an online statement, Zelenskyy said that Moscow’s forces fired more than 315 drones and seven missiles overnight.

A maternity hospital and residential buildings in Odesa were damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

Another person was killed in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district, regional head Tymur Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

Russia has been launching a record number of drones and missiles in recent days, despite both sides trading memoranda at direct peace talks June 2 in Istanbul that set out conditions for a potential ceasefire. However, the inclusion of clauses that both sides see as nonstarters make any quick deal unlikely, and a ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive.

Associated Press contributed.