{"id":29225,"date":"2025-04-10T07:11:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T11:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29225"},"modified":"2025-04-10T07:11:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T11:11:22","slug":"ballerina-ksenia-karelina-jailed-over-51-80-40-ukraine-charity-donation-released-in-prisoner-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/04\/10\/ballerina-ksenia-karelina-jailed-over-51-80-40-ukraine-charity-donation-released-in-prisoner-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballerina Ksenia Karelina jailed over $51.80 (\u00a340) Ukraine charity donation released in prisoner swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ballerina Ksenia Karelina – jailed in Russia after giving \u00a340 to a charity supporting Ukraine – has been released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old US-Russian citizen\u00a0was accused of treason when she was arrested<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in Yekaterinburg, in southwestern Russia, in February last year.<\/p>\n

Investigators searched her mobile phone and found that she made a $51.80 (\u00a340) donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, on the first day of Russia’s invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n

She admitted the charge at a closed trial in the city in August last year and was later jailed for 12 years.<\/p>\n

Mikhail Mushailov, Ms Karelina’s lawyer, said on Instagram that she had been flown to the US from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

US secretary of state Marco Rubio added that Ms Karelina “was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year,” and said “President Trump secured her release… (and) will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans”.<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Karelina<\/div>
(Image:<\/span> AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ms Karelina, an amateur ballerina, was born in Russia but moved to the US in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021. She had moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in a spa.<\/p>\n

She had been back in Russia visiting family at the start of 2024 when she was arrested, according to rights group The First Department.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed she had proactively collected the money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations.<\/p>\n

It claimed the donation was “used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces”.<\/p>\n

The charity denies it provides military support to Kyiv, while the US authorities have previously called the case against her “absolutely ludicrous”.<\/p>\n

German-Russian citizen released in swap<\/strong><\/p>\n

In exchange for Ms Karelina’s release, Arthur Petrov – who was arrested in 2023 for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics – was released.<\/p>\n

The dual German-Russian citizen was detained in Cyprus at the request of the US.<\/p>\n

Last year, the US Justice Department said that Petrov participated in a scheme to obtain American-sourced microelectronics for manufacturers supplying the Russian military.<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballerina Ksenia Karelina – jailed in Russia after giving \u00a340 to a charity supporting Ukraine – has been released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US. The 34-year-old US-Russian citizen\u00a0was accused of […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,3,6],"tags":[5725,6872,11190,138,8524,1695,8994,11191,442,11193,11192,5418,1286,4896,5032,10521],"class_list":{"0":"post-29225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"category-world","11":"tag-abu-dhabi","12":"tag-cyprus","13":"tag-donation","14":"tag-human-rights","15":"tag-kyiv","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-prisoner-swap","18":"tag-razom","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-federal-security-service","21":"tag-the-first-department","22":"tag-treason","23":"tag-ukraine","24":"tag-united-arab-emirates","25":"tag-us-justice-department","26":"tag-yekaterinburg","27":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29227,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29225\/revisions\/29227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}