According to the State Department, a former U.S. Marine imprisoned for three years in Russia was injured from fighting in Ukraine and is being treated in Germany.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Trevor Reed to be in a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
“We are aware that Trevor Reed was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a news conference. “Mr. Reed has been transported to Germany, and he is receiving medical care.”
Mr. Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. government,” he added.
Mr. Reed was transferred to Germany by a non-governmental organization that was not named, and his health condition also remains unknown.
Mr. Reed enlisted in the Marines in 2011 and became part of a presidential support unit during the Obama administration, NBC News reported. He was also assigned to the protection of then-Vice President Joe Biden at Camp David, Maryland, according to his family. He was discharged from the Marines in 2016.
“As I indicated, we have been incredibly clear warning American citizens, American nationals, not to travel to Ukraine, let alone participate in fighting,” Mr. Patel said. “As you know, we are not in a place to provide assistance to evacuate private U.S. citizens from Ukraine, including those Americans who may decide to travel to Ukraine to participate in fighting.”
It’s unclear how many Americans have volunteered to fight in Ukraine. But the conflict has attracted fighters from around the world, with Ukrainian authorities saying thousands of volunteers from dozens of countries have joined their cause. Ukraine established an international fighting force just days after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided questions about the effect Reed’s participation in the Ukraine war could have on negotiations for the release of two Americans imprisoned in Russia—businessman Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
“What I can concede is that the teams are doing everything that we can, using every avenue that we can to bring Paul and Evan home,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
Reed was arrested in 2019 in Moscow after he assaulted a police officer following a night of heavy drinking, according to Russian authorities.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison, with the American ambassador in Russia calling the evidence flimsy, according to NBC.
Reed, his Russian girlfriend, and his family denied the charges.
Reed was released from Russian custody in an April 2022 prisoner swap in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who would serve a 20-year sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.
The U.S. government later designated 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.
American Prisoners in Russia
The House of Representatives passed resolutions in June that call on Russia to immediately release Mr. Whelan and Mr. Gershkovich, who have been accused of espionage.Mr. Gershkovich, 31, a Moscow-based correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 29 on suspicion of spying for the U.S. government.
Mr. Gershkovich is the first U.S. journalist to be detained in Russia since the Cold War.
Mr. Whelan is a 53-year-old corporate security executive from Michigan who was arrested in December 2018. He’s currently serving a 16-year sentence at a maximum-security penal colony.
He was in Moscow for the wedding of a fellow Marine veteran on Dec. 28, 2018, when he was arrested on espionage charges. While the FSB said he was arrested while “on a spy mission,” he has maintained his innocence, insisting that he was set up.
The U.S. government has backed him in those claims, with then-U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan describing Whelan’s trial as a “mockery of justice.”
Previous attempts to secure Whelan’s release in a prisoner swap have failed, even as Russia released fellow U.S. detainee WNBA star Brittney Griner in December 2022.
