'I fought': Trevor Reed speaks out on how he survived nearly 3 years in a Russian prison

"I feel better every day," he said.Trevor Reed: 'I wasn't sure if I was ever going to come home'When the war in Ukraine broke out in February, Trevor Reed said he believed it meant he likely would never come home.The American former Marine by that time had been imprisoned in Russia for nearly three years, held hostage after being convicted on trumped up charges. I think both of us probably had that same feeling, that same thought of like, 'that's what that guy looks like,'" Reed said.Treated by doctors on the plane back, Reed said he struggled to shake a new found anxiety around flying."Mostly I was hoping that the plane did not crash at that moment before I saw my family," he said.Reed said that when he initially landed in the United States, his parents were there to meet him, but he said he couldn't hug or touch them until he underwent a full medical examination to ensure he did not have tuberculosis or any other communicable diseases.Since being medically cleared, he said he has tried to adjust to normal life, even having to remember some English, after speaking Russian for the past three years.But Reed said he cannot stop thinking about the other former Marine held hostage in Russia, Paul Whelan, who was left behind. Whelan is in a prison camp also in Mordovia, sentenced to 16 years.Russia had previously floated trading Whelan for Yaroshenko and other Russians held in the United States and at one time it had been thought Reed and Whelan might be traded as a pair."I had a really strong feeling of guilt that I was free and that Paul Whelan was still in prison. They have to get our guys out,” Reed said.“You're getting two Americans who are going to have, you know, a huge amount of time left on their sentences for a guy who is getting out soon-- who has already been in prison for 15 years,” he said.He said if the freedom of the other American hostages means more prisoner exchanges, then the U.S. government shouldn't balk at taking that path again.When told that some have countered that prisoner exchanges only encourage countries to take more hostages, Reed scoffed at that notion."I would like to say that that's completely inaccurate," Reed said.