MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. It will take years to recover after a 12-year time at a US prison, Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko said in an interview with TASS.

"I will hardly be able to be a pilot again because of my health condition. The Americans actually made me disabled, while 12 years ago I was a civil pilot. <...> It will take me very long to recover," Yaroshenko said.

He said he had already recovered mentally, yet remained in a poor physical condition.

"I am currently trying to get all my papers ready. I’ve been at [a dental clinic], but I don’t have teeth any more. I cannot eat normally [because of my dental problems]," he added.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry reported the exchange of Yarosheko and Trevor Reed on April 27. Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in 2011 on drug trafficking charges. He has denied the charges and called his arrest a provocation, and denounced his case as a setup. American student Reed received a nine-year jail term in Russia in 2020 for physically assaulting police officers.