A US ballerina who is facing up to 15 years in a hell-hole Russian penal colony after donating money to a Ukraine charity is desperate for a prisoner exchange that will allow her to go home to California.

Ksenia Karelina, 33, who also has Russian citizenship, has reportedly instructed her lawyer to apply for a swap. 

She is on trial in the city of Yekaterinburg over a donation she made in 2022 to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Karelina's lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said today that an exchange 'is impossible until the verdict comes into force…

'After the verdict, of course, we will work in this direction

'This is the desire of the client [Ksenia Karelina], so I will take all legally significant actions to ensure that this is implemented.'

The Los Angeles spa employee, who is also a ballerina, pleaded guilty and today made a closing plea to the judge in a closed-door hearing, after she was left out of last week's high profile east-west prisoner swap which included Gershkovich and Russian FSB assassin Vadim Kostikov.

Karelina appeared drained when she was last seen in court after months in Putin's penal system.

Acquittals in Russian treason cases are almost non-existent.

Russian state news agency RIA quoted her lawyer saying she has pleaded guilty to the treason charges on Wednesday and a verdict will be announced today, according to Reuters.

The judge imposing her sentence is Kremlin-obedient Andrey Mineev, 56, in Sverdlovsk Regional Court, Yekaterinburg.

He seldom veers more than slightly from the demands of state prosecutors.