WASHINGTON, January 12. /TASS/. US citizen Taylor Dudley, detained last April in Russia, was handed over to the American side on Thursday at the Russian-Polish border, the US Richardson Center announced in a statement.

"Governor Bill Richardson and the Richardson Center are thrilled to announce that Navy veteran Taylor Dudley has been released from Russia today, January 12, 2023…," the statement reads.

According to the statement, Dudley was handed over "at the Russia-Poland Bagrationovsk-Bezledy border crossing, and is currently with the Richardson Center team, on his way home, together with his mother Shelley."

"Taylor has been held in Kaliningrad, Russia, since April of last year," the statement says. "Over the past year, our team travelled to Moscow and the region multiple times, liaising with our Russian counterparts and conduits."

"The negotiations and work to secure Taylor’s safe return were done discreetly and with engagement on the ground in both Moscow and Kaliningrad and with full support from Taylor’s family back in the United States."

US-based news network CNN also confirmed earlier in the day that Dudley had been released, stating in particular that: "An American Navy veteran who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year was released from Russian custody on Thursday [January 12]."

"Taylor Dudley, 35, of Lansing, Michigan, was detained by Russian border patrol police in April 2022 after crossing from Poland into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave which is territory governed by Moscow between Poland and Lithuania," according to CNN.

Russia’s special military operation

On February 21, 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics DPR and LPR respectively). Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Moscow recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions as of the beginning of 2014.

Russian President Putin announced on February 24, 2022 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance, he had decided to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.

From September 23 to September 27, 2022, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region held a referendum where the majority of voters opted to join Russia.

On September 30, 2022, Russian President Putin and the heads of the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia. Later, the State Duma and the Federation Council (the lower and upper houses of Russia’s parliament) approved legislation on ratifying these treaties, as well as federal constitutional laws on the accession of the four regions to Russia.