US Marine veteran freed from Russia in 2022 now injured fighting in Ukraine

A poster of US Marine Corps veteran and former Russian prisoner Trevor Reed on display in Lafayette Park near the White House, in March, 2022. Photo / Patrick Semansky, AP, File

A former US Marine who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said.

Trevor Reed was injured several weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorised to discuss the matter by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He has been taken to Germany for medical care, said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

Patel said little about Reed’s injury or presence in Ukraine beyond noting that he was not “engaged in any activities on behalf of the US government”. But Reed’s decision to take up arms during Russia’s war with Ukraine potentially complicates US efforts to win the release of two other Americans still detained by Moscow, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

His fighting also risked a potentially dire scenario if he’d been captured and returned to Russian custody after the US had worked to get him home.

Trevor Reed was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year and has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, sources say. Photo / AP

“As I indicated, we have been incredibly clear warning American citizens, American nationals, not to travel to Ukraine, let alone participate in fighting,” Patel said. “As you know, we are not in a place to provide assistance to evacuate private US citizens from Ukraine, including those Americans who may decide to travel to Ukraine to participate in fighting.”

The nature of Reed’s injury was not immediately clear, but Patel said he was transported out of Ukraine by a non-governmental organisation.

Reed was released from Russian custody in an April 2022 prisoner swap in exchange for a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who’d been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the US.

Reed was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station following a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison.

The US government described him as unjustly detained and pressed for his release while his family asserted his innocence. Relatives also were concerned about his deteriorating health. At one point he said he was coughing up blood while in custody. He also staged a hunger strike to protest the conditions under which he was held.

The Messenger was the first to report Reed’s injury.