Ukrainian military and intelligence agencies released US prisoner of war Suedi Murekezi during an exchange involving dozens of prisoners from each side.
Russian forces arrested Murekezi, 35, on suspicion of serving as a CIA agent. Murekezi had lived for two years in the city of Kherson before his arrest in June, following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A two-hour ceasefire allowed Ukrainian and Russian soldiers to meet outside Zaporizhzhia in the “grey zone” and exchange prisoners. Murekezi had remained in Russian-controlled territory before the swap, ABC News reported.
Murekezi spoke of his treatment in a Russian “torture chamber,” where he remained for a few weeks before the war, subjected to electric shocks in a basement while soldiers accused him of being a CIA agent and participating in pro-Ukrainian protests. . He claimed that the soldiers provided minimal food and water.
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The Russian state news agency TASS reported that authorities accused Murekezi of “inciting ethnic hatred.”
US citizen Suedi Murekezi holds a Ukrainian national flag after a prisoner of war (POW) exchange, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location, Ukraine, in this handout photo released on December 14, 2022 .
(Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
He remained in custody along with Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two US fighters arrested by Russian forces in June.
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The Russians then transferred Murekezi to a prison in Donetsk, where he remained for three months before being released. He stayed in the city since he did not have his passport and therefore could not leave Russian-controlled territory.
A view of a destroyed shopping mall in the city of Kherson on July 20, 2022, amid ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine.
(Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine secured the release of 64 soldiers and five slain Ukrainians in addition to Murekezi, The Hill reported. Ukrainian forces said they would take Murekezi to Kyiv.
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Murekezi’s brother told The Guardian newspaper that all of his friends and family had been “extremely concerned” for his well-being as they had not heard from him for weeks after his arrest. He insisted at the time that Russia had held his brother prisoner for “its own propaganda purposes.”
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, speaks during an interview in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 22, 2022.
(Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Murekezi was born in Rwanda in 1985 but fled with her family due to the genocide, after which they moved to Minnesota. She first visited Ukraine in 2017 on business, but settled there permanently in 2020.
He had served in the US Air Force before living in the Ukraine.
The US State Department had previously said it was “aware of the reports” of Murekezi’s detention but declined to comment further due to “privacy considerations”, but his family said they had remained in daily contact with the State Department about his situation.
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Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram that “another prisoner exchange” had happened, adding that “we continue to return our own.”
