President Biden says detained Americans are coming home and their 'brutal ordeal is over'

Washington, Aug 1 (AP) President Joe Biden says detained Americans are coming home and their brutal ordeal is over'.
    Addressing the nation from the White House State Room, Biden said it was a “feat of diplomacy” that brought home Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Kurmasheva and Kara-Murza. He said multiple countries worked together to get it done.
    As Biden made his statement at the White House, he was joined by relatives of the freed Americans.
    The US president said he and the families had spoken to their relatives by phone from the Oval Office minutes before his address. Biden called the release an “incredible relief” for the families and a feat of diplomacy.
    Biden said the work to bring home those wrongfully detained began during his transition into the presidency. And he said his administration has brought home 70 Americans, “many since before I took office.”
    The United States and Russia completed a 24-person prisoner swap on Thursday, the largest in post-Soviet history, with Moscow releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich and fellow American Whelan in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place. (AP)
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)