Wrongfully detained in Russia and injured fighting in Ukraine. Everything we know about Trevor Reed

Former United States Marine Trevor Reed, who was released last year after being wrongfully detained in Russia for three years, has been injured in Ukraine, the State Department said on Tuesday.

A person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press that Mr Reed was wounded several weeks ago. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said he has now been taken to Germany for medical care.

Not much has been said about Mr Reed’s injury or presence in Ukraine. Mr Patel added: “As I indicated, we have been incredibly clear warning American citizens, American nationals, not to travel to Ukraine, let alone participate in the fighting.

"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.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Trevor Reed and why he was arrested.

Who is Trevor Reed?

Mr Reed is originally from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and spent his 20s in the US Marine Corps and eventually received an honourable discharge.

In 2016, Mr Reed began dating a young Russian woman called Alina, according to a website set up by his family to call for his release. In 2017, after his service, he then returned to college and began working toward a degree in International Studies at the University of North Texas, which required him to select a foreign language course.

Mr Reed selected Russian as a foreign language and was inspired to learn the language given that his girlfriend was also from Russia and he wanted to communicate with his girlfriend’s family.

In May 2019, Mr Reed travelled to Moscow to study Russian and spend the summer with his girlfriend. A week before his scheduled flight back to Texas, on 15 August 2019, Mr Reed reportedly attend a party with his girlfriend and her coworkers.

Russian police alleged that Mr Reed was detained by police in Moscow after leaving a car on a busy street while he was intoxicated. It was alleged that Mr Reed grabbed the arm of an officer while they were on the way to the police station, causing the police vehicle to swerve into another lane. A claim that Mr Reed’s lawyers disputed.

According to the website set up by Mr Reed’s family, Mr Reed apparently became “inebriated” due to the level of alcohol in his system that night.

Mr Reed reportedly became nauseated and wanted to get out of the vehicle. When the car stopped, he left the vehicle and started running around near a busy street in the early hours of 16 August.

His behaviour caused those with Mr Reed to call the police for assistance. The family’s website states that when the police arrived, they reported he was “in the condition of strong intoxication considering his shaky gait, rambling speech, and strong smell of alcohol. Mr Reed waved his hands, shouted incoherent words, and behaved inadequately”.

The police then took Mr Reed to the police station, where he was detained for the evening. His girlfriend was told to return in the morning to pick him up but when she returned, Mr Reed was being interviewed by the Russian Federal Security Services (FSB).

What was Mr Reed accused of?

Mr Reed was accused of grabbing the right arm of the driver in the police car, causing him to swerve dangerously into other lanes. He was also accused of “striking the officer in the back seat with his elbow as the officer tried to stop Trevor from grabbing the driver.”

In April 2021, Mr Reed was freed from nearly three years of imprisonment after he was swapped for a Russian drug trafficker in a prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow at the time.

Mr Reed was swapped in Turkey for Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been serving a 20-year prison sentence in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy case.

Mr Yaroshenko was detained in Liberia in 2010 by the US and accused of smuggling cocaine and knowing that some of the drugs were intended for distribution in the US. Mr Yaroshenko was detained by Liberian authorities and later turned over to the US. Despite never visiting the US, Mr Yaroshenko was flown there to stand trial in 2011 where he was convicted.

At the time, The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the arrest, calling it a "kidnapping of a Russian national from a third country."

Additional reporting from the Associated press