Trevor Reed was injured while fighting in Ukraine a source familiar with the matter told The Messenger. He was transported to a hospital in Kyiv and was evacuated to Germany for medical care. Reed was arrested in Moscow in the summer of for intoxication and was sentenced to nine years in prison in July for endangering the life and health of Russian police officers in an altercation. Reed and his family denied the charges against him and he was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department. His release from Russian prison in April came after months of effort by US government officials said and was particularly urgent given concerns about Reeds health. It was ultimately secured through a prisoner swap for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko a Russian smuggler convicted of conspiring to import cocaine. The circumstances around Reeds injury in combat were not immediately clear. Reed is the latest American to be injured whileFighting for Ukraine in its war in against Russia. The State Department has repeatedly warned Americans against traveling to the country and has called for Americans to stay away from the country in the first place. The Messenger was first to report the news. Jonathan Franks a spokesperson for the Reed family declined to comment on the reports of Reed’s injury and was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday. He is the third American to have been injured fighting in the war in Ukraine in the past two months and the second to be released from prison in the last two months of 2014. The US State Dept. has warned Americans not to travel to Russia in the wake of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian government. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has said it is working with the Ukrainian government to ensure the safety and security of its citizens in the region. The Russian government has not commented on the latest reports of the injured American serviceman being released from jail in Ukraine. It is not known if he will be able to return to the U.N. for medical treatment. The cause of the injury is not yet known and the circumstances around the injury are not clear. The former US Marine was released in April after nearly three years in Russian prison and was convicted of endangering police officers’ lives and sentenced to 9 years in jail. He has since been released in a prisoner swapped for a Russian citizen convicted of conspiracy to import Cocaine. The United States and Russia have been at odds over the sale of arms to the Russian military in the 1990s and early 2000s and have been locked in a diplomatic dispute over the issue for more than a decade. It has been reported that the US government has been trying to have the case settled in a court of law in the United States. The case has been adjourned until at least the end of this year. The American Embassy in Russia has said that the case is still under investigation and that no charges have been brought against the former Marine by Russian authorities for any of the alleged offenses against him or his family. It’s not clear if the case will be settled in the next few months.
Former U.S. Marine released by Russia in prisoner swap injured while fighting in Ukraine
