Trevor Reed, released in U.S.-Russia swap in 2022, injured in Ukraine

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed, who was released in a prisoner swap with Russia brokered by the Biden administration in 2022, was injured recently while fighting for Ukraine in the east of that country, CBS News has learned.

Multiple sources tell CBS that Reed was evacuated from Ukraine by a non-governmental organization and is expected to recover from those injuries. He’s being treated in a German hospital.

The Biden administration is aware of Reed’s injury in Ukraine and his travel to Germany for treatment. An administration official said in a statement, “I want to be clear here: Mr. Reed was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government has been extraordinarily explicit in warning Americans not to travel to Ukraine, let alone to participate in fighting there.”

The official also said that U.S. citizens who travel to Ukraine in order to join the fighting there “face significant risks, including the very real risk of capture or death.”

“The United States is not able to provide assistance to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine, including those Americans who may decide to travel to Ukraine to participate in the ongoing war,” the official said.

Reed had been arrested in Moscow in 2019 and the State Department considered him wrongfully detained. There remain two Americans wrongfully detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned since March and is accused of espionage. Whelan has been detained in Russia since December 2018 and is serving a 16-year prison sentence on espionage charges. The U.S. has declared that both men are being wrongfully detained by Russia.

CBS News has reached out to representatives for Reed and his family.

The Messenger was first to report on Reed’s injuries and evacuation.