Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva have arrived back in the United States after being freed as part of the biggest prisoner exchange with Russia since the Cold War.

The White House said the US had negotiated the swap with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 26 people, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners, along with two children, in the other direction.

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The US citizens’ plane landed late on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, where they were greeted by cheers from family and friends who had gathered for their arrival, as well as US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

An elated reunion for US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva with her daughters Miriam Butorin and Bibi Butorin at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland [Brendan Smialowski/AFP]

Biden earlier said he owed a particular debt of gratitude to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made the politically difficult choice to release Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence for the murder of an exiled dissident in Berlin.

“Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world,” Biden said at the White House earlier, flanked by the relatives of the freed prisoners.

Harris welcomed their release after what she said was an “appalling perversion of justice”.

The West secured the release of 16 people who had been jailed in Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian political prisoners in a deal that Turkey helped mediate.

Thursday’s deal was the biggest in post-Soviet history, and required significant concessions from other countries.

Elizabeth Whelan welcomes her brother Paul home [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]

A previous prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow took place in December 2022, when American basketball player Brittney Griner returned to the US after 10 months in a Russian prison in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin was at Moscow airport to meet the eight citizens returning home, greeting Krasikov with a handshake as he got off the plane.

Outside Russia, they had been convicted of spying, hacking and murder, but Putin said they group would be honoured with state awards.