Paul Whelan reflects on how WNBA star Brittney Griner helped lend support and advocated for his freedom after he was left behind in a one-for-one prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia in December 2022.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was detained in Russia for more than five years, recounts to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell how the FSB stormed into his room in 2018 and discusses his subsequent "sham" arrest.

Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran who was imprisoned in a Russian labor camp for nearly six years until being released after a prisoner swap this summer, tells "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" in his first interview since being freed about the first moments he realized he was free.