A U.S. Air Force veteran has been freed from Russian-controlled territory in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia, U.S. officials said today.
after being wrongly accused of participating in pro-Ukrainian protests.
Kirby, on a conference call with reporters Wednesday, confirmed Murekezi's release and said: “We welcome the news."He was freed along with 64 soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who fought in Donetsk and Luhansk, according toUkraine also received four bodies of soldiers killed in action, Yermak said., Murekezi said he spent weeks in a basement after he was initially arrested, where he said he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks.
Murekezi said he was then transferred to a prison in Donetsk city, where he spent three months before being released, though he was without his U.S. passport and effectively trapped.was freed in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Murekezi had been one of at least three U.S. veterans arrested or captured by Russia or Russian-backed authorities during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Alexander John-Robert Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two other former service members, were captured while fighting alongside Ukrainians in Kharkiv Oblast in June but were
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