Massive prisoner swap

US and Russia carrying out massive prisoner swap that is expected to include Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan

By Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Ivana Kottasová

A large-scale prisoner swap between the US and Russia is under way, according to a source familiar, and it is expected to include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and a number of Americans.

The parties have agreed to a prisoner transfer and the prisoners are expected to be in the care of US officials, according to a senior administration official.

The exchange is anticipated to be completed Thursday.

The deal would end a nightmare that lasted more than five years for Whelan and more than a year for Gershkovich. Both men were designated by the US State Department as wrongfully detained.

Thursday’s swap comes after months of quiet and complicated negotiations between Moscow and Washington, which included US diplomats scouring the globe for offers to entice Russia to release the Americans.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg. He was found guilty of espionage by a Russian court on July 19 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial that the US government, his newspaper and supporters have denounced as a sham.

Whelan – who is a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation.

The former US Marine was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges he vehemently denies. He had been carrying out his sentence at a labor camp in Mordovia, an eight-hour drive from Moscow, where he told CNN in June 2021 that he spends his days working in a clothing factory that he called a “sweatshop.”

It’s been a particularly long wait for Whelan, who has been left out of several exchanges in the past.

He was not part of two deals in 2022. In April of that year, Moscow exchanged former US Marine Trevor Reed for Russian citizen and convicted drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko. In December, WNBA star Brittney Griner was swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.