Marine veteran who was freed from Russia in a 2022 prisoner exchange has volunteered to fight for Ukraine and is now asking for U.S. government help after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, The Messenger has learned.

It's unclear how Trevor Reed was wounded roughly two weeks ago. Two U.S. military officials briefed on the matter said he may have stepped on a landmine while another U.S. official said he was merely injured by shrapnel to both legs—a common wound among Ukrainian forces. Reed had spent more than two years in Russian custody before winning his freedom in April 2022.

The officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to Defense Department regulations, said they did not know the extent of Reed’s injuries. One of the U.S. officials said Reed was being treated in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and had requested transfer to an American military facility in either Germany or Poland.

The sources also said that American officials have privately expressed frustration over Reed’s case, in part because of regular State Department warnings to American citizens against travel to Ukraine, and especially given the lengths the U.S. went to free Reed from a Russian prison.

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At some point in the last year, Reed joined a group of outside freelancers fighting on the side of the Ukrainian resistance against Russia. Thousands of Americans - it’s not clear exactly how many - are believed to have made the journey to fight in Ukraine.

The officials said that after Reed was injured, he wanted to return to the U.S.but was prevented from doing so due to an issue involving his contract with Ukrainian forces. Reed then wanted to take his story to the press, the sources said, as a way to complain about his treatment in Ukraine and advocate for U.S. government help in his evacuation.

“[Reed] had to be talked off a ledge about going to the media,” said one of the U.S. military officials, but the threat of publicity has apparently helped. The officials told The Messenger that the State Department has begun efforts to coordinate his evacuation with a non-governmental organization. The officials did not know which NGO was involved.

“My own interpretation is that he got what he wanted, he wanted help out of Ukraine, the [Biden] administration doesn’t want negative Ukraine press, so he got help.”

Trevor Reed is either an idiot or he was and is an active Marine as the Russians claimed when they arrested and tried him. What other “contract solider” has the power to demand transfer to a US military hospital in Germany?? Does the US transfer every injured “contract solider” who gets injured while fighting in Ukraine.

This kettle of fish has a strong stink.