Russian American ballerina Ksenia Karelina expressed her gratitude to President Donald Trump in a video message after returning to the U.S. as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.

Trump shared the video on Truth Social Friday morning, writing, “Glad to have you back home.”

“Mr. Trump, I’m so, so grateful for you to bring me home and for [the] American government. And I never felt more blessed to be American and I’m so, so happy to get home. Thank you,” Karelina said to a camera after landing late Thursday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Fox News reported.

After stepping off the plane, Karelina shared a heartfelt embrace with her fiancé, boxer Chris Van Heerden. A U.S. official confirmed that she has been offered Post-Isolation Support Activities, a reintegration program for Americans wrongfully detained abroad, Fox noted.

Moscow liberated Karelina on Thursday in exchange for German-Russian citizen Arthur Petrov, who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the U.S. on charges of exporting sensitive microelectronics, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

“American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release. POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X. 

Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony after pleading guilty to treason for donating $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity in early 2024. She was initially arrested on charges of “petty hooliganism” while visiting family in Russia that same year.

Russian authorities accused Karelina, a Los Angeles resident, of raising funds for the Ukrainian military and participating in “public actions” in the U.S. that supported Ukraine, Fox reported.

Karelina was left out of a massive August 2024 prisoner swap that resulted in the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva from Russia, the outlet added.

She is the most recent American prisoner released from another country under Trump’s administration. In February, Trump secured the return of American history teacher Marc Fogel, who had been held in Russia since 2021.