Donald Trump welcomes Ksenia Karelina, freed Russian-American ballerina at White House

President Trump greeted Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina at the White House Monday after she was released from a Russian penal colony last month in a prisoner swap.

“Congratulations. That’s very nice. That’s a great honor,” Mr. Trump said as he shook her hand in the Oval Office, according to a video posted on social media.

Ms. Karelina, 33, was freed from a Russian prison in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a Russian-German national who was arrested in August 2023 in Cyprus on smuggling charges in the U.S.

The ballerina was serving a 12-year sentence on a conviction of treason after donating $51 to a charity that allegedly supported Ukraine in February 2022, around the same time Russia attacked its neighbor.

She was detained in January 2024 while on a monthlong visit to her family in Yekaterinburg. A native of Russia, Ms. Karelina is a U.S. citizen who was living in California at the time of her arrest.

She was sentenced last August.

She told Mr. Trump Monday that she was in Russian custody for 15 months.

“That’s a long time,” Mr. Trump says in the video.

In a video posted to social media Monday, Ms. Karelina told the president that she was “so grateful for you to bring me home.”

“I’m here with your team today and feeling overwhelmed with all the great feelings, feeling that I’m going to be home soon and thank you and the government for bringing me home,” she said.

She said she is “so proud and so blessed to be an American citizen today.”

Ms. Karelina is the second person to be freed from Russia in a prisoner swap deal between the Trump administration and Russia. In February, American teacher Marc Fogel was exchanged for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert.

“We spoke to President Putin about it, and they made a deal. They released the young ballerina, and she is now out, and that was good. So we appreciate that,” Mr. Trump said in a Cabinet meeting last month.

Professional boxer Chris Van Heerden is the fiance of Ms. Karelina. Mr. Trump said during the Cabinet meeting that UFC CEO Dana White alerted him to the situation.

Mr. Van Heerde celebrated her release in a statement the day she came back to America, saying he was “overjoyed” to hear she was on her way back.