An American once imprisoned in Russia is sentenced in absentia as Ukraine mercenary

MOSCOW — An American who spent three years behind bars in Russia before being released in a prisoner exchange has been convicted in absentia for fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, Russia's Investigative Committee said Wednesday.

The committee, Russia's primary criminal investigation authority, said in a statement that Trevor Reed was sentenced by a Russian court to 14 1/2 years in prison.

Reed was injured in the fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2023 and treated in Germany. His whereabouts at the time of the sentencing were not immediately known.

Reed, a former US Marine, was arrested in Moscow in 2019 for allegedly assaulting a police officer while heavily intoxicated. Russian authorities claimed he had grabbed the steering wheel of the police vehicle taking him to a so-called “drunk tank.”

However, police did not produce video evidence from the vehicle's camera and Reed's girlfriend, who was following in a separate car, said she did not see the vehicle swerve. The then-US ambassador, John Sullivan, said the evidence against Reed in the trial was so preposterous that “even the judge laughed.”

Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was released in April 2022 in exchange for Russian drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko.

He reportedly joined the Ukraine military as a foreign fighter in November 2022.

The announcement of Reed's conviction came two days after a Moscow court convicted 72-year-old American Stephen Hubbard of fighting in Ukraine as a mercenary and sentenced him to nearly seven years. Hubbard was captured by Russia about two months after the Febrruary 2022 start of full-scale fighting in Ukraine.