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A former ballerina who was imprisoned in Russia for donating £39 to a charity collecting money for Ukraine has finally been freed.
Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russian dual national, was supposed to spend the next 12 years of her life behind bars after being convicted of treason last year and branded an ‘American spy’.
The 34-year-old was today released in a prisoner exchange with the US government, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
Rubio confirmed in a statement on X earlier: ‘American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States.
‘She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and president Trump secured her release.
‘He will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans.’
Her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said: ‘She was exchanged. She contacted her relatives two hours ago.’
He confirmed that she was flying to the US from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the exchange took place.
Who is Ksenia Karelina?
Karelina was born in Russia and emigrated to the US back in 2012 with her childhood friend Kristina via a work-study programme, receiving American citizenship in 2021.
At first, she pursued dance as a ballerina, but later moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles, where she took on a job as a receptionist at the luxury Ciel Spa at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.
In 2022, she graduated from aesthetician school and continued working in the spa until she was jailed in Russia.
![US-Russian ballerina, Ksenia Karelina, 33, branded an 'American spy???, convicted of paying $51.80 [??40.76] and sentenced to 12 years in a hellhole Putin prison, as freed today in an exchange in Abu Dhabi.??? Here Ksenia is pictured with her father Pavel](http://softnary.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SEI_247012831-7daf.jpg)
Family members described her as someone who ‘loves to travel to US national parks, hikes, does yoga every Sunday and takes boxing classes’.
A statement on the ‘Free Ksenia’ website said: ‘She is a kind and generous woman who is very close to her family. Since her arrest, her boyfriend Chris has been the lead advocate for Ksenia, coordinating everything we do to support Ksenia and bring her home.’
Why did the Kremlin target the former ballerina?
She had travelled from Los Angeles to visit her 90-year-old grandmother, parents and younger sister in their home in southwestern Russia when she was detained in February.
Three days before she was scheduled to return home, she was handcuffed in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains, and convicted of state treason later in 2024.
This was also the same location where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich had been arrested the previous year.
![US-Russian ballerina, Ksenia Karelina, 3???3, branded an 'American spy???, convicted of paying $51.80 [??40.76] and sentenced to 12 years in a hellhole Putin prison, as freed today in an exchange in Abu Dhabi.](http://softnary.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SEI_247007708-a428-e1744280463139.jpg)
Russia’s FSB searched her mobile and found that she had made a donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Authorities accused her of ‘proactively collecting money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces’.
The US authorities have called the case against her ‘absolutely ludicrous’.
Dora Chomiak, the CEO of Razom for Ukraine, said today: ‘We are overjoyed to learn that after over a year of being held unjustly in Russian
captivity, Ksenia Karelina has been released and is returning home to the United States.
‘We extend our gratitude to President Donald Trump and his team for
working to secure Karelina’s release. President Trump has pledged that he will leave no American behind, and our team congratulates him for delivering on that promise today.’
Who else was part of the prisoner exchange?
The prisoner exchange was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing a statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe, who it said was on hand for the exchange at an airport in Abu Dhabi.
‘Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia,’ Ratcliffe said.
‘I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort, and we appreciate the government of UAE for enabling the exchange.’
It is understood that the US, in exchange, freed dual German-Russian citizen, Arthur Petrov.
He was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the US for allegedly exporting more than $225,000 worth of electronic components to manufacturers supplying weaponry and equipment to the Russian military.
Petrov worked for Russia-based supplier LLC Electrocom VPK, according to court documents cited by the US Department of Justice.
It was alleged that alongside two accomplices who also worked for Electrocom, Petrov fraudulently procured microelectronics from US distributors using a network of shell companies, based in Cyprus and other third countries, to disguise that the ultimate destination for the equipment was Russia.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian or US authorities.
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