Washington D.C. – NY Post, April 10, 2025
Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was released from Kremlin custody in a prisoner swap with the United States on Thursday morning.
Karelina was freed in exchange for German-Russian Arthur Petrov at a swap in Abu Dhabi, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
“She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release. @POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” he added.
The dual-citizen spa worker was accused of treason against the Russian government when she donated $51 to a charity that allegedly supported Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 — the day Russia launched its attack on its western neighbor.
She allegedly “transferred funds in the interests of a Ukrainian organization, which were subsequently used for the purchase of tactical medicine items, equipment, means of defeat and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
