From captivity to freedom - How prisoner swap unfolded

A historic prisoner swap has freed 24 prisoners from seven countries - three of whom have now returned to the US.

In the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War, journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, along with US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, were returned safely to US soil.

President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris were on the runway to meet the freed prisoners as they disembarked.

In exchange, one of the prisoners returned to Russia was Vadim Krasikov, a suspected Russian agent who was serving a life sentence for murder in Germany.

Watch how the night unfolded.

Video by Anna Lamche.