Russia releases U.S. Marine vet as part of prisoner exchange
The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American deemed wrongly detained abroad.
LEARN MOREPosted: 2:12 p.m. EDT Jul 25, 2023
Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was released from Russian captivity in a prisoner swap, was injured while fighting in Ukraine, according to an official with the Biden administration.
The State Department said Reed was transported to a hospital in Germany with the help of a nongovernmental organization.
"I want to be clear: Mr. Reed was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. Government," a Biden administration official told Scripps News in a statement.
It's unclear how severe Reed's injuries are or how long he had been fighting in Ukraine.
While the Biden administration has supported Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, the U.S. does not have troops on the ground in the country. It has also warned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to help fight off the Russians.
"The United States is not able to provide assistance to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine, including those Americans who may decide to travel to Ukraine to participate in the ongoing war," the U.S. official told Scripps News.
Reed was freed from Russian captivity about two months after the war in Ukraine began. In exchange, the U.S. handed over Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Reed had been jailed in Russia since 2019. Russian authorities claimed the former Marine assaulted a police officer after a night of drinking. He was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison.
