US citizen Suedi Murekezi was released alongside dozens of Ukrainian soldiers from Russian-occupied territory in a prisoner swap, according to top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Andriy Yermak, who heads Ukraine’s presidential office, said the country had secured the release of Murekezi, 64 soldiers and five killed Ukrainians.
“Another prisoner swap,” Yermak wrote on Telegram. “We continue to return ours.”
Murekezi’s brother told the Guardian that Murekezi was arrested in June in Kherson, a regional capital of Ukraine that Russia occupied at the time but from which it has since withdrawn.
Murekezi, an American national of Rwandan descent who previously served in the air force, moved to Ukraine about four years ago and had not seen any combat, his family told the British newspaper .
But Murekezi was jailed in Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine in territory illegally annexed by Russia in the fall, for allegedly participating in pro-Ukrainian protests, according to The Guardian.
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported in August that Murekezi was charged with inciting ethnic hatred.
The Hill contacted the State Department for comment.
Murekezi’s release comes days after the Biden administration announced a prisoner swap that freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for an infamous Russian arms dealer known as “The Money Dealer”. the death”.
Griner had been detained at a Moscow region airport for possession of vaping cartridges containing hash oil.
The United States deemed her wrongfully imprisoned and worked for months to secure her release.
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