Boyfriend of LA ballerina detained in Russian jail reveals he was planning to PROPOSE - and says she sent him a 'love letter' describing life behind bars where she is only allowed to shower ONCE a week

• Ksenia Karelina has revealed her grim prison conditions 500 miles east of Moscow where she faces 20 years for high treason 
• The duel Russian-U.S. citizen was seized on a visit to her grandparents when a search of her phone revealed a one-off donation to a Ukrainian charity 
• Boyfriend Chris Van Heerden revealed that he had been planning to propose when she came back from Russia   

The boyfriend of LA ballerina Ksenia Karelina has received a ‘love letter’ from the Russian jail where she is awaiting trial for high treason after donating $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

Boxer Chris Van Heerden revealed he had been planning to propose to the 33-year-old before she was seized and led blindfolded into a Russian courthouse while visiting her elderly grandparents in January.

His girlfriend is now being held in a cell 1,000 miles east of Moscow in conditions that are a grim contrast to her job as a beautician at a spa in Beverly Hills.

‘They got to go to bed at 10, and they get to shower once a week, which is painful,’ said Ven Heerden.

‘She said, “I’ve got a little window in my cell, and I can see the sun, and I know that I look at the same sun as you look at when the sun goes down.”‘

Chris Van Heerden said that Karelina had sent him a ‘love letter’ from her Russian prison cell detailing the grim conditions she is being held under

Karelina is accused of fund raising for a pro-Ukrainian organization, she attained US citizenship in 2021

Footage of a shackled and hooded Karelina shocked the world when she was pictured being led into a Russian courthouse on charges of high treason

Karelina, who holds dual Russian-American citizenship, faces up to 20 years in jail for making the small donation to the humanitarian charity Razom on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

The payment was discovered after her phone was seized when she flew into Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport on January 2, planning to visit her 90-year-old grandparents in time for Russia’s Christmas day.

She was arrested after being invited to pick up her phone on January 27, the day that Ven Heerden last spoke to her.

‘Fifty-one dollars, come on,’ he told NBC, ‘a simple donation because she’s kind.

‘I was actually thinking of proposing to this woman, so every day is tough.

‘She’s got an affectionate smile. Always happy, so, so, so giving. She lives a full life.’

A detention hearing this week denied her application to be held on house arrest and Russia has refused to grant consular access to U.S. officials as Karelina becomes the latest pawn in a diplomatic war between Washington and Moscow.

‘I didn’t get my hopes up,’ said Van Heerden insisting she would need a ‘miracle’ to escape from Russian custody.

The LA dancer and beautician faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted

Dual Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina, 33, was arrested by Vladimir Putin’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, on January 27

Ksenia Karelina, 33, pictured with her father Pavel, mother Liliya, and younger sister, remains detained in Russia on high treason charges

The case has further fueled fears that Western citizens with Russian passports are being targeted for arrest in Russia

On her Facebook page, Karelina says that she’s from Yekaterinburg and that she studied ballet at the S. P. Diaghilev school

‘I broke down because I know Ksenia, she is a sweetheart, she’s so soft and I cannot imagine for the life of me how scared she must be,’ he added.

‘I want to let people know that Ksenia is a normal person, that’s my job. She’s a normal American citizen that made a mistake.

‘I’m in a fight right now totally out of my control, I’m in a fight that I’m not familiar with. I’m trying my very best to do as much as I can.’

Yekaterinburg is also the same city where Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested on spying charges nearly 12 months ago.

Karelina was sentenced to 14 days detention for ‘petty hooliganism’ before she was slapped with treason charges.

Russia’s FSB claims she ‘proactively collected funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces’.

In a statement, Razom’s CEO Dora Chomiak said the organization is ‘appalled at Karelina’s arrest.

‘Vladimir Putin has repeatedly shown that he holds no soveregn border, foreign nationality or international treaty above his own narrow interest,’ Chomiak said.

‘His regime attacks civil society activists who stand up for freedom and democracy.’

Last week, Karelina’s distraught father said he was ‘at a loss’ as to how to help her.

Speaking publicly for the first time in an interview with DailyMail.com, Pavel Karelina, 56, said he couldn’t comment on the Russian government’s ongoing case against his daughter, but thanked the public for their support.

‘We really can’t say anything now. We ourselves are at a loss to understand what’s going on,’ said Pavel, the general director of a Russian transport equipment company.

‘Please understand. Thank you for your good wishes.’

Karelina’s one-time husband, Evgeny Khavana, revealeed last month that his own family are living in fear and cannot speak freely because they believe they are being ‘listened to’ by Russian authorities.

He said, ‘We cannot speak, my family cannot say anything,’ he added.

Her mother-in-law, Eleanora Sreboski, told DailyMail.com that Ksenia would spend the rest of her life in a Russian prison if America didn’t intervene.

Van Heerden said his girlfriend was veering between motivation one day and hopelessness the next, but was ‘prepared for what might be the fight of her life.’

He said guards let her out of her cell once a day but sometimes keep her outside for hours in the freezing Russian winter.

Karelina was still dancing in the last video call between the pair before her arrest

The South African born former IBO welterweight champion says he is now in a ‘fight I am not familiar with’ as he struggles to free his girlfriend

‘Ksenia’s a sweetheart, she’s so soft and I cannot imagine for the life of me how scared she must be,’ he said

‘I’m in a fight right now totally out of my control, I’m in a fight that I’m not familiar with,’ he added.

‘I’m trying my very best to do as much as I can.

‘I want to let people know that Ksenia is a normal person, that’s my job. She’s a normal American citizen that made a mistake.

‘Ksenia’s a sweetheart, she’s so soft and I cannot imagine for the life of me how scared she must be.’

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