Dana White, CEO of the UFC, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep in a May 2026 interview that he used his personal relationship with PresidentDonald Trumpto help secure the release of a woman held in a Russian penal colony. The case centers onKsenia Karelina, a Russian-American dual citizen who was sentenced to 12 years in prison over a $51.80 charitable donation.
The interview was conducted as part ofNPR‘s Newsmakers video podcast at Newark’s Prudential Center, the night before a UFC event. Inskeep and White were discussing immigration policy under the Trump administration when the conversation took a turn toward what White had quietly done behind the scenes months earlier.
“There was a girl who was a fighter’s wife. She was Russian, but she has American citizenship. She went back to visit her family in Russia and the military kicked her door in, in the middle of the night, and arrested her. They found that she had donated $15 to Ukraine, and they arrested her and had her in a Russian prison. President Trump, I called him, and he got her released.”
When Inskeep asked how Trump had managed it,Whitereplied simply:“He called Putin, I would assume.”
The woman White was referring to was Ksenia Karelina, a 34-year-old Russian-American. She lived inLos Angeles, where she worked as an aesthetician managing a Beverly Hills spa and also trained as an amateur ballerina. Her boyfriend at the time, Chris Van Heerden, is a South African professional boxer and former IBO welterweight champion who competed at the top level of the sport.
Karelinaflew to Russia in early January 2024 to visit her 90-year-old grandmother and other family members in Yekaterinburg. She had been a U.S. citizen since 2021 and did not believe the trip posed any risk. Van Heerden, who had planned to propose to her on her return, bought her the ticket himself for her birthday in December.
When Karelina landed in Yekaterinburg on January 17, 2024, Russian customs officials searched her phone at the airport. They found a record of a Venmotransferof $51.80 made on February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to a New York-based nonprofit called Razom for Ukraine. Razom describes itself as a humanitarian aid organization supporting Ukrainian civilians. It denied Russian claims that it funded weapons or ammunition.
Karelina was initially detained on a minor charge of “petty hooliganism” which allowed Russian authorities to hold her while they prepared a larger case. She was formally charged under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code with high treason, a charge that carried a sentence of between 12 years and life in prison.
Her trial began on June 20, 2024, and she admitted guilt on August 7, with her attorney advising that pleading guilty could reduce the sentence. On August 15, 2024, Judge Andrei Mineev, the same judge who sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, handed her 12 years in a general regime penal colony. She had been held for 439 days by the time of her release.
Van Heerden spent over a year raising awareness and pushing for Karelina’srelease, including appearing on national media outlets. The efforts under the previous U.S. administration went nowhere. It was during a UFC fight card in Sydney, Australia that the chain of events leading to her freedom began.
Source: LowKickMMA.com
