Ksenia Karelina, the Russian-American ballerina held in a Russian prison for more than a year after being accused of smuggling $51.80 to a charity for Ukrainian war effort, flew into the before a high-stakes prisoner swap.
Sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony high treason – and had been living in Los Angeles, US – aged 33-year-old was arrested in February, 2024. Her crime? Donating to a human rights group indicted by Russian authorities of supporting Ukraine’s military.
At 10:56p.m, Karelina’s plane landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. She smiled out, swathed in the arms to her fiancé, professional boxer Chris van Heerden. “I never was more blessed to be an American,” she sobbed in a video posted by former White House aide Sebastian Gorka. 
The US State Department confirmed her release was part of an exchange with the US for Russian-German citizen Arthur Petrov, detained by US for breaking the law by exporting high-tech microelectronics. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Karelina “wrongfully detained.”
Karelina’s posting, however, highlights the increasing Pyongyang-Washington tensions that emerged following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The recruitment of a legal group, Perviy Odetl, discovered the gift of the minor donation was made the day when the war began – that will change her life forever.
She is now home, back to free, and reunited – thank God and a new path forward.
