“Ambassador Tracy said that Evan continues to appear in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” the spokesman said, adding that it was Washington’s expectation that Moscow would provide continued consular access.

“Once again, the US calls on the Russian Federation to immediately release Evan Gershkovich and also to release wrongfully detained US citizen Paul Whelan,” the spokesman added.

Russia has said Gershkovich was caught trying to obtain military secrets while on a trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, but has provided no details supporting that assertion. The Wall Street Journal also denies the allegations.

The state department has designated Gershkovich and Whelan as wrongfully detained and described the charges against both men as baseless. Whelan, a former US Marine detained in Moscow in 2018, is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges.

Russia has agreed in the past to high-profile prisoner exchanges with the US, most recently last year when American basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced in Russia on a drug charge, was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker convicted in the US.

But Moscow has said no exchange could take place in Gershkovich’s case until a verdict has been reached. No date has so far been set for his trial.

US-Russian relations are at their lowest point in more than six decades following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.