U.S., Russia swap prisoners Reed and Yaroshenko amid war tensions

FILE PHOTO: U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019 and accused of assaulting police officers, gestures inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States and Russia swapped prisoners on Wednesday amid their most tense relations in decades over the war in Ukraine, with former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed released in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

The swap was not part of broader diplomatic talks and did not represent an American change in approach on Ukraine, U.S. officials said. Russian-American ties have been at their worst since the Cold War era following Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.