On Wednesday, a U.S. citizen was freed as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. Suedi Murekezi had been held since his arrest by Russian forces in Kherson in June. Meanwhile, CNN is reporting Russia refused to release U.S. prisoner Paul Whelan alongside Brittney Griner last week unless a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy organization currently in German custody was also released. Vadim Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany after he was convicted of assassinating a Georgian citizen in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019. His victim, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was a Chechen separatist commander who fought against Russian forces in the early 2000s.