Russia and the United States announced on Wednesday that they had exchanged prisoners for former US Navy Trevor Reid and Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, despite rising tensions between the two countries in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Trevor Reid, a native of Texas, has been imprisoned in Russia since May 30, 2020, while Yaroshenko, 53, was sentenced in the United States to 20 years in prison in 2011.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a telegram that the exchange was “the result of lengthy negotiations.”

Pictures aired on Russian state television showed Reid, dressed in black, carrying a large suitcase and boarding a plane surrounded by soldiers at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport.

His father, Joey Reid, said Trevor was transferred to a prison in Moscow this week and transferred to Dormak, an airport in Turkey.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden stressed the need for “tough decisions” in the talks. He further added that “this is a testament to the priority given by the US administration to the repatriation of Americans held hostage and unjustly detained abroad.”

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