An American Russian woman who spent more than a year imprisoned in Russia for accusations of financially supporting the military of Ukraine after a charity donation returned to the United States on Thursday night after an exchange of prisoners.
Ksenia Karelina, a former dancer who had been living in Los Angeles, was arrested in Russia in February 2024 and sentenced to 12 years in a criminal colony for “high treason.”
The plane that transported Karelina landed at 10:56 pm in the Andrews, Maryland, near Washington, DC
He was smiling when he left the steps of the plane and hugged his fiance, Chris van Heerden, who was waiting outside the plane. Van Heerden gave his coat to Karelina in the 50 -degree night air and surrounded her while they moved away from the plane.
“Mr. Trump, I am very grateful for bringing me home and the US government,” Karelina said in a video recorded by the Trump Sebastian Gorka administration official. “And I never felt more blessed to be American, and I’m very happy to get home.”
The Russian legal group Perviy Otdel and the United States SPA where Karelina worked said she was arrested due to a donation of $ 51.80 to a charity organization that provides help to Ukraine.
Karelina was released in an exchange of prisoners with the United States, said the State Department.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that Russia had unfairly stopped. On an early Thursday, the special envoy of the hostage response, Adam Boehler, published a photo of Karelina on a plane that went to the United States and held an American flag.
The Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) has never provided many details about the alleged crime of Karelina.
He said that the donation “was subsequently used to buy tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, an attack that USA., Europe and other nations have condemned as an act of unbelled aggression.
Karelina donated to the beneficial organization that same day.
Liberated in the exchange was the Russian national Arthur Petrov, said the State Department.
The Wall Street Journal, which for the first time that Karelina was released on Thursday, informed that Petrov is a double German-Russian citizen who was arrested in Cyprus in 2023 at the request of the United States for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.
