US urges Russia to release Americans held on ‘espionage’ charges

The US envoy to the United Nations has called on Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan.

"Last year, this council had the privilege of being joined by Paul's sister Elizabeth in the public gallery," Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council meeting in New York.

She asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to consider her "unimaginable pain having gone four years without seeing her brother, to look into her eyes and see her suffering."

Underlining that more than 2,000 days have passed since Whelan last saw his family, Greenfield said: "We will not rest until Paul and Evan come home, and Russia has ceased this barbaric practice of holding human pawns once and for all. And that is a promise."

Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 on charges of espionage. Russia's Federal Security Service has accused the reporter of obtaining state secrets about the military-industrial complex, which Gershkovich and the WSJ have denied, maintaining he was simply doing his job.

Whelan has been detained in Russia on espionage charges for more than five years.