Ekaterina Pushkash originally trained in ballroom dancing and took up ice dancing because of her cousin. She teamed up with her maternal first cousin, Dmitri Kiselev, in 2000. They moved from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow for training in 2002. Pushkash/Kiselev won silver medals at the 2008–2009 ISU Junior Grand Prix event in Gomel, Belarus and at the 2009 Russian Junior Championships. They finished sixth at the 2009 World Junior Championships and parted ways at the end of the season.