Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, are back on U.S. soil.
As they stepped off the plane, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted the three at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
The Americans were part of an extraordinary 24-prisoner exchange involving Russia, the United States and several other countries, the largest of its kind since the Cold War and one in which President Biden was directly involved, the White House said earlier Thursday.
