US Marine sentenced to 14 years in Russia for serving in Ukraine

Trevor Reed, freed by Moscow in 2022 prisoner swap, found guilty in absentia of serving as mercenary

Trevor Reed, a former US Marine who Russia freed in a prisoner swap in 2022, has been found guilty in absentia of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine and handed a prison sentence of 14 and a half years.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said that Mr Reed had joined Ukraine’s army in July 2023 and “directly participated on the side of the Ukrainian security forces in combat operations” against Russian troops in Ukraine.
It said it had placed Mr Reed on the international wanted list.
Mr Reed could not immediately be reached for comment. In July, the US State Department said he had been injured while fighting in Ukraine and had been transferred to Germany for medical care.
Mr Reed, born in 1991, was convicted in Russia in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The United States called his trial a “theatre of the absurd”.
He was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022 in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who had been convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US.
Separately on Monday, a Russian court on sentenced Stephen James Hubbard, a 72-year-old American, to nearly seven years in prison for serving as a mercenary for Ukraine.