‘Keep the faith, we’re coming’: White House officials say they will keep trying to return Paul Whelan to US

Days after securing the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian custody, US officials said they are “still negotiating” for the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden’s administration made a “very serious, specific proposal” for Mr Whelan and Ms Griner together, but “it just didn’t land anywhere ... with the Russians,” he told ABC’s This Week on 11 December, three days after Ms Griner returned to US soil.

“As we progressed through this summer and into the fall ... it was clear that they were treating Paul very separately, very distinctly because of these sham espionage charges they levied against him,” he added. Mr Whelan was accused of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.

Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who escorted Ms Griner to the US-bound plane after her exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, said he spoke with Mr Whelan on 9 December.

“I said, ‘Paul, you have the commitment of this president, the president’s focus, the secretary of state’s focus, I’m certainly focused – we’re going to bring you home’,” Mr Carstens told CNN on Sunday. “I reminded him, ‘When you were in the Marines and I was in the Army, they always reminded you: Keep the faith. We’re coming to get you.’”

Mr Whelan also “shared his frustration” with Mr Carstens that he continues to remain in prison despite the release of Mr Griner and Trevor Reed, a US Marine veteran who returned to the US after another prisoner exchange with Russia earlier this year.

Mr Carstens said he explained that negotiations with Russia were a “case where there was either one, or none.”

“Had we not made the deal, Brittney would not have come home,” he added.

In a message to CNN from a Russian prison, Mr Whelan said he is “greatly disappointed that more has not been done” to secure his release.

“I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here,” he said by phone.

Mr Kirby told ABC that it became increasingly clear last week that Mr Whelan’s release alongside Ms Griner would be unlikely.

“It really occurred to us that there was just no chance of doing it last week,” he said. “We had been trying all the way up until the moment we actually secured the deal that got Brittney home, we were still trying to get Paul out.”

He said the US is “going to keep trying as hard as we can” to retrieve Mr Whelan.

“This business of getting wrongfully detained Americans home, there’s nothing easy about it,” he said.

Mr Carstens would not reveal the scope of those negotiations, saying that “we usually have to keep our cards close to our chest”.

“We have to adapt at times,” he added. “But here’s the thing I’d like to leave you with: We have an ongoing, well, open dialogue with the Russians. And we have the commitment of this president and my office, certainly, to bring Paul Whelan home.”