Irish citizen freed in prisoner swap which saw US journalist released from Russian prison

The Taoiseach has welcomed the release of Irish citizen Paul Whelan from a Russia jail in a prisoner exchange — the largest of its kind since the Cold War

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Picture: AP Photo

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, who is an Irish citizen, have been freed from Russian custody as part of a major exchange that also involved the freeing of several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners.

In the exchange, which took place at Ankara airport on Thursday afternoon, eight Russians held in the west returned to Russia. Among them was the Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, who has been held in a German prison since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin.