National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan got emotional during the White House briefing on the same day of the biggest U.S.-Russia prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War.
“We’ve stayed in regular and routine touch with them,” Sullivan said of the families of those who were held in Russia. “I spent a lot of time with the families of Evan and Paul and Alsu.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were among those freed as a result of negotiations that were two years in the making, according to a senior administration official.
“Today was a very good day. And we’re gonna build on it, drawing inspiration and continued courage from it, for all of those who are held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world.”
Sullivan then went on to thank his teammates and colleagues for the “monumental level of effort” that was put in to accomplish the deal.
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