His family states, “Today, our prayers have been answered.” Reed, a Texas native, was apprehended by Russian officials in the summer of 2019 after they said he attacked a police officer.
Former Marine Trevor Reed was released by Russia in a prisoner swap with the United States, according to his family and officials.
“Today, our prayers have been answered, and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States,” stated his parents, Joey and Paula, and sister, Taylor.
Reed, 30, will “tell his own story” when he is ready before requesting privacy to deal with “the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag,” according to the statement.
The Russian-American trade began on Wednesday, when Reed, who was imprisoned in Moscow, was exchanged for convicted Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States in 2010.
On her verified Telegram channel, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claimed the swap happened “as a consequence of a protracted negotiation process.”
Even if the surprising agreement had been made in peacetime, it was all the more remarkable since it came as Russia’s war with Ukraine had pushed ties with the United States to their lowest point in decades.
“Today, we welcome Trevor Reed home and celebrate his return to the family who has sorely missed him,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released Wednesday morning. It wasn’t an easy task, according to Biden, to bring Reed home.
Russia had pushed for his release for years, despite pleas from high-ranking US officials. Reed was approaching his 1,000th day in prison, and his health had recently deteriorated, according to his family.
In a European country, the two inmates were swapped. Officials did not specify the location of the transfer. Commercial flight trackers, however, spotted a plane belonging to Russia’s state security service going to Ankara, Turkey, just hours before the swap.
According to Yaroshenko’s lawyer, Biden commuted Yaroshenko’s 20-year federal prison sentence as part of the deal. He is now in Russian jail after serving little over half of his sentence.
He has been a model inmate, according to his lawyer, and “just wishes to live a quiet life.” According to top administration sources, Carstens met with Reed after his release, spoke with his family, and was “in excellent spirits.”
The prisoner swap is the highest-profile release of an American deemed wrongfully detained abroad during the Biden administration, and it comes despite the fact that families of detainees who have met with administration officials over the last year have described them as opposed to the idea of an exchange.
