Ex-US Marine Trevor Reed, once imprisoned by Russia, is injured fighting for Ukraine
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A 2019 photo shows Trevor Reed in Russian detention, accused of assaulting police officers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - A former US Marine who spent more than two years in a Russian prison
Mr Trevor Reed, who was released by Moscow in an April 2022 prisoner swop, has been sent to Germany for the treatment of unspecified injuries incurred while fighting for Ukraine, said Mr Vedant Patel, the State Department spokesman.
Mr Patel stressed that Mr Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the US government”, but had travelled to Ukraine to join the fight on his own.
He said Mr Reed was transported to Germany with the help of a private, non-governmental organisation and is currently receiving medical care.
“We have been incredibly clear that travelling to Ukraine, choosing to participate in the fighting there, has a very real risk of capture, of death, of bodily harm, and that continues to be our assessment,” Mr Patel said.
Mr Reed was a Texas university student in 2019 when he travelled to Russia with his Russian girlfriend.
He was arrested for assault on law enforcement officers after getting drunk, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
In April 2022, Russia released him after the White House negotiated an exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, an alleged drug smuggler,
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States government has been “extraordinarily, extraordinarily explicit” in warning citizens “not to travel to Ukraine, let alone participate in fighting”.
She said she could not provide an estimate of how many Americans might be volunteering on the side of Ukrainian forces.
Asked if the Reed episode could complicate US efforts to procure the release of other Americans imprisoned – unjustly, according to Washington – in Russia, Ms Jean-Pierre said the cases were “separate. They’re not the same”. AFP
