A total of 24 prisoners were exchanged between the U.S., western nations and Russia on Thursday inside of Turkey in the largest swap since the Cold War.
President Biden held a news conference on Thursday with the families of the freed prisoners.
“Now their brutal ordeal is over,” Biden said, “and they’re free.”
Gershkovich had been held since March 2023 in Russia on charges of collecting state secrets on behalf of the U.S. government. Whelan was held since 2018, also on espionage charges.
The other American freed was Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who has been held since October.
The prisoner swap also saw the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British anti-Kremlin activist who was detained in 2022 for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
In return for the prisoners, the U.S., Germany, Norway, Poland and Slovenia released eight Russians from custody, including hackers and spies tied to the Kremlin.
The most notorious of the freed Russians was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman convicted in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen separatist commander.
Twelve Germans and Russian activists and opposition leaders were also released by Moscow in the swap.
While the news was well received across the U.S., some Republicans, including former President Trump, said the prisoner releases would embolden Russia.
“Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps.”
But at the White House, national security adviser Jake Sullivan visibly teared up.
“Today was a very good day,” he told reporters. “And we’re going to build on it.”
Check out our full rundown of the 24 released prisoners, along with those Americans still held in Russia, here.
