WTH? Trevor Reed injured fighting in Ukraine

File this under “are you freaking kidding me?” American Trevor Reed, a former Marine and a Fort Worth, Texas native, was released from Russian captivity in April 2022. Team Biden is fond of making prisoner swaps and Trevor Reed was swapped for a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who’d been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

In the summer of 2019, Reed was arrested after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer in police custody en route to the police station. He was out on a night of heavy drinking. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. The U.S. government determined Reed was unjustly detained. The government pulled out all the stops to get him released.

A former national security adviser for Trump said that the Russians were willing to make a deal to release both Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed but then Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The Russians reneged on the deal when Biden was declared the winner, according to Robert O’Brien.

The Biden administration pressed for Reed’s release and his family maintained that he was innocent. His relatives were concerned about his deteriorating health. Reed staged a hunger strike to protest the conditions in the Russian prison. There was a gofundme page set up for him. He was released in the prisoner swap and returned home to his family in Texas.

The story that Reed was injured while fighting in Ukraine came out of the blue. The State Department said he was wounded several weeks ago. He was taken to Germany for medical care, according to State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

Now there are concerns about negotiations to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

U.S. officials said little about Reed’s injury or presence in Ukraine beyond noting that his activities weren’t on behalf of the U.S. government. But Reed’s decision to take up arms during Russia’s war with Ukraine potentially complicates U.S. efforts to win the release of two other Americans still detained by Moscow, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. His fighting also risked a potentially dire scenario if he’d been captured and returned to Russian custody after the U.S. had worked to get him home.

“As I indicated, we have been incredibly clear warning American citizens, American nationals, not to travel to Ukraine, let alone participate in fighting,” Patel said. “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.”

Americans have volunteered to fight in Ukraine, as have others from around the world. Ukrainian authorities say thousands of volunteers from dozens of countries have joined with Ukrainians to fight.

It makes you ponder why Trevor Reed took the risks involved with his particular case and went to Ukraine to fight. Perhaps it was to avenge his time spent in a Russian prison. I don’t know. But, I sure hope it doesn’t muck things up in the negotiations for the release other Americans from Russian prison, likeEvan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Marc Fogel. It’s hard to believe that he would return to that area after all that he went through and those who love him did to get him released.