Russia sentences a former US marine freed in a prisoner exchange in 2022 to 14 years in prison

MADRID 9 Oct. () –

A Russian court this Wednesday sentenced former US Marine Trevor Reed to 14 and a half years in prison, released from Russia in April 2022 thanks to a prisoner exchange and now accused of fighting in Ukraine on the side of the local Armed Forces.

Reed, arrested in Russia in 2019 and sentenced to nine years in prison for assaulting a police officer, was exchanged for pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, but his name once again made headlines after it was confirmed that he had been injured in the conflict in Ukraine.

The Russian Investigative Committee has now indicated that he has received a second sentence ‘in abstentia’ for involvement in mercenary activities in Ukraine. According to Russian investigators, the former marine arrived in Ukraine in mid-2023 and “voluntarily” joined the Ukrainian forces, from which he received weapons and other equipment to contain and stop the Russian offensive, the Interfax agency reports.