The U.S. is celebrating the release of Trevor Reed, a Marine veteran from Texas detained in Russia for 985 days, and who was headed back to the United States Wednesday after a prisoner exchange, according to the White House, following years of his family pleading his case.

       Reed was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison colony in 2020, convicted on charges of violently assaulting two police officers in Moscow following a drunken party when he was visiting his girlfriend. Reed's family and U.S. officials say those charges and ones brought against Paul Whelan, another former Marine still held in Russia, were fabricated in order to seize them as bargaining chips.

       Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images, FILE

       In this file photo taken on March 11, 2020 U.S. ex-marine Trevor Reed, charged with attacking police, stands inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow.

       MORE: Marine veteran Trevor Reed released from Russian prison as part of prisoner exchange

       Here's a timeline of key events in Reed's case:

       Aug. 15, 2019 - Russian police detain Reed

       While visiting his Russian girlfriend, Reed was out at a party and became intoxicated. He says he was traveling home from the party in the early morning hours of Aug. 16 when their car was pulled over and Reed says he got out because he got sick and started running around.

       Police were called to the scene and took Reed to a police station where Russian Federation agents later arrived and detained him.

       March 11, 2020 - Reed's trial begins

       Reed appears in a Russian court on the first day on his trial. He faced charges of endangering the lives of the officers and was accused of attacking them and grabbing the police car's steering wheel and causing it to swerve -- despite video evidence later showing that never happened. U.S. officials would later call the trial "theatre of the absurd."

       July 30, 2020 - Russia sentences Reed to nine years

       A Russian court handed down Reed a maximum sentence of nine years in a Russian prison colony after his trial faced a long delay from March until July.

       Lm Otero/AP, FILE

       Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with a portrait of their son Marine veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022.

       July 16, 2021 - Reed transferred to remote prison colony

       After several appeals, Reed was moved from a prison in Moscow to a remote prison colony. Despite hopes for a prisoner exchange at President Joe Biden's summit with Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Geneva one month earlier, Reed was sent some 350 miles from the Russian capital to a camp in Mordovia.

       MORE: Trevor Reed, ex-Marine held 'hostage' by Russia, moved to prison camp

       Nov. 4, 2021 - Reed goes on hunger strike

       Isolated in the remote prison colony, Reed goes on a hunger strike, according to his girlfriend, protesting his detention and "numerous and flagrant violations" of his rights by Russian authorities. He had been in solitary confinement for nearly three months at this point because he refused to do labor in the prison camp, his family said at the time.

       MORE: Amid war in Ukraine, US Marine detained by Russia faces urgent health needs

       Feb. 24, 2022 - Russia invades Ukraine

       Russian launches its invasion of neighboring Ukraine, prompting more calls from Reed's family for Biden to bring their son home.

       Patrick Semansky/AP, FILE

       A poster photo of U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed stands in Lafayette Park near the White House, March 30, 2022, in Washington. D.C.

       March 8, 2022 - Reed's parents protest at Biden event

       After protesting outside Biden's event at a Veterans Affairs facility in Fort Worth, Texas, Joey and Paula Reed said Biden called them after his speech.

       March 30, 2022 - Reed's parents meet Biden

       Reed's parents meet with Biden for 40 minutes after demonstrating outside the White House amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Around the same time, Trevor Reed went back on another hunger strike in prison to protest.

       April 1, 2022 - Reed transferred to hospital

       Reed was transferred to a prison hospital after reported exposure to tuberculosis in December, his family said.

       MORE: Trevor Reed's parents say hope diminishing for son's release from Russia

       April 12, 2022 - Reed appears in appeals court via video link

       Reed is seen publicly for the first time in months in a court appearance via video link from his prison colony for an appeals hearing. The court remanded his case to a lower court, but Reed was able to speak about his health, saying it had been two weeks since he coughed up blood, and called the charges against him fabricated.

       April 27, 2022 - US, Russia announce prisoner swap

       Statements from the White House and Russian Foreign Ministry report Reed's release as part of an international prisoner exchange. Reed is exchanged for Russian Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.

       According to Joey Reed, his son was first flown from Russia to Turkey where he was exchanged on the tarmac for Yaroshenko.

       "He said it was like a movie," Joey Reed said. "They walked past each other like in a spy swap."