American-Russian woman sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia for $50 donation to Ukraine charity

A Russian-American woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia for donating just over $50 dollars to a Ukrainian charity. Ksenia Karelina, an amateur ballet dancer who lives in Los Angeles, was arrested in January while visiting her grandparents in Yekaterinburg, a city 1,100 miles east of Moscow. Karelina, 33, was born in Russia but went to the United States for a work-study programme in 2012 and became a US citizen in 2021. When the Kremlin ordered tanks into Ukraine in 2022, she gave $ (£39) to a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians affected by the war, relatives said. Read the best of our journalism: Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: Find us on Facebook: Find us on Twitter: Find us on Instagram: