“She is depressed,” says lawyer for Russian-American woman convicted of donating $51 to Ukraine

Ksenia Karelina’s lawyer said she was “prepared” for Thursday’s sentencing (15). A Russian court ruled that the Russian-American ballerina will have to serve 12 years in prison after donating $51 to Ukraine.

“Ksenia’s emotional state is undoubtedly depressed – and it could not be otherwise, considering that the court sentenced her to 12 years in prison. However, she was prepared for this sentence, for this decision. We had discussed it beforehand,” Mikhail Mushailov said.

“She admitted her guilt, in part, for transferring the money. However, she did not admit her intent — the direct intent to transfer the money to those organizations where it likely ended up,” he added.

The ballerina had donated the money to a charity that supports Ukraine. Russian investigators allege that the money was used to buy ammunition and weapons for the Ukrainian army.

The court said investigators found that on February 24, 2022 — the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Karelina had “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.”

Her supporters say she donated $51.80 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to children and the elderly in Ukraine. The charity has denied that it provides any military support to Kiev.

Karelina, 33, appeared in court on Thursday wearing a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass cell in the courtroom.

She was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States in 2012 through a work-study program, receiving American citizenship in 2021.

She was arrested by the Russian security service FSB after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg earlier this year.