Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was wrongfully detained in Russia for three years before being released as part of a prisoner exchange last year, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department confirmed Tuesday.
“We are aware that Trevor Reed was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine,” Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a press conference. “Mr. Reed has been transported to Germany, and he is receiving medical care.”
Patel did not say how Reed was injured or give his condition. Reed was transferred to Germany by an NGO (non-governmental organization) but did not name that organization.
But he stressed that while in Ukraine, Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. government.”
Reed was arrested in the summer of 2019 in Moscow after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven to a police station following a night of heavy drinking.
Over the objections of his family and the U.S. government, which said he’d been unjustly detained, Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Reed was released in April 2022 in exchange for Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko.
It was not immediately clear when Reed traveled to Ukraine and how he came to be fighting there.
“Since the beginning of this war, we have warned that US citizens who travel to Ukraine, especially for the purpose of participating in fighting there, that they face significant risks including the risk of capture or death or physical harm as well,” Patel said.
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