L.A. woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison for $50 Ukraine donation

A dual U.S.-Russian citizen has been sentenced to 12 years in a Russian prison for treason after authorities learned she donated just over $50 to a charity supporting Ukraine.

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Ksenia Khavana, 33, sometimes identified by her maiden name of Ksenia Karelina, was arrested in February after travelling to Russia to visit her family. Khavana, a former ballerina, lives in Los Angeles and works at a Beverly Hills spa.

Her closed-door trial took place in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains, before the same court and judge that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage. Gershkovich was released from prison early this month as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said the US$51.80 that Khavana donated was used to buy weapons deployed against Russia. She “proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces,” the agency said.

Meanwhile, Khavana’s supporters say she donated money to Razom for Ukraine, a U.S.-based charity that provides humanitarian relief to people in Ukraine. The charity denies it provides any military support to Kyiv, writing in a release that it is “focused on humanitarian aid, disaster relief, education and advocacy.”

During the trial, Khavana “admitted guilt in part,” her lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said. She admitted to donating the money but maintains that it was not her intent to transfer funds to “be used for anti-Russian actions.”

Her lawyer says he plans to appeal the verdict.

Khavana’s boyfriend Chris van Heerden expressed his anger that the 33-year-old former ballerina was not included in the prisoner swap that freed Gershkovich.

“There was a prisoner swap two weeks ago, and Ksenia was not on that list,” he said, adding that he had been pushing the American government to bring her home over the past eight months. “Ksenia should be home, and I’m angry, and I’m trying to hold my composure.”

Van Heerden said that Khavana made the donation while on American soil in L.A. way back in 2022, when the war between Russia and Ukraine first began. She was detained in Russia in February this year, two years after making the donation.

Khavana’s boyfriend revealed that he was the one who bought her plane ticket home as a birthday surprise. He was concerned about the situation in Russia but said Khavana was set on visiting her family. The pair travelled together to Turkey for New Year’s before Khavana continued on to Russia and he flew back to the U.S.