Belarus releases political prisoners in exchange for US sanctions

Dozens of political prisoners were released from the Belarusian prisons as part of a deal between authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and US President Donald Trump.

Fifty -two prisoners have been released, including trade union leaders, journalists and activists, but more than 1,000 political prisoners remain in prison.

In return, the United States said it would facilitate some sanctions on the Belarus airline Bellavia, allowing him to buy parts for his airlines.

The release of the prisoner came on the eve of joint military exercises, including Belarus and a close ally Russia, and then, which the neighboring Poland called an unprecedented Russian invasion of drones in its airspace.

Poland closes its borders with Belarus because of the Zapad-2025 training, which last until Tuesday. Latvia closes some of its airspace.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Poland’s leadership for its “confrontation steps” when closing the border. Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kalas warned that “Putin is making fun of the West’s efforts to deal with him.

Alexander Lukashenko, who has been 71 years old and has led Belarus since 1994, canceling all the opposition, defined the release of prisoners as a humanitarian gesture after meeting with Trump’s special envoy John Coale in the capital Minsk on Thursday.

The two men discussed how they could restore the trade relationship, including reopen the US Embassy in Minsk.

The United States closed its embassy in the capital in February 2022 after Russian Vladimir Putin used the Belarusian territory to launch his full -scale invasion in Ukraine.

Coale told Reuters news agency that there is still no date for the embassy’s re -opening, but this will happen “in the very near future”.

Belarus is eager to build economic relations, with the United States being affected by a raft by Western sanctions due to connection with Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Some of the sanctions on the national airline Bellavia have been canceled in exchange for the release of prisoners, US officials say.

The airline was sanctioned after the Belarusian flight controllers ordered a Ryanair plane traveling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk in 2021, and then police arrested journalist Roman Protasevic.

Many Belarus prisoners were in prison after Lukashenko brutally printed protests in Belarus in 2020 after he stated the victory in the presidential election, widely convicted as counterfeit.

“Americans take a very constructive position on so -called political prisoners. We do not need political prisoners or other prisoners,” Lukashenko quoted a state news agency Bella.

The 52 prisoners were sweeping on Thursday, joining 314 others released since July 2023 in an attempt to mitigate Belarus’s relations with the EU and the United States, according to Human Rights Watch.

Another 14 prisoners were swept and released in June during Visit to an American Special MessengerIncluding Sergei Tihanovski, husband of Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tihanovskaya. Thirteen others were released and forced into exile.

Tihanovskaya met with some of the liberated prisoners when they crossed the border in neighboring Lithuania, where President Gitanas Nauseya thanked President Trump for his efforts to release them. He said they had left behind “prickly wire, blocked windows and constant fear.”

Among the 52 are the 69-year-old philosopher Vladimir Matkevic, the journalist Igor Losik and the senior opposition figure Mikola Statkevic, who was presidential candidate in 2010.

Opposition official Olga Zulinski writes on social media that their release is good news for their families and friends, but noted that they receive their freedom in exchange for exile and not for a return home.

In her first words to reporters after her release, former journalist Larissa Shchirakova said that she had actually served her entire three -year prison – “And now they kicked me out.”

Mikola Statkevich, a veteran dissident, refused to move to Lithuania and the exposed opposition of Belarus publishes pictures of him that sits in any land on the border. Tihanovskaya said he had returned to Belarus and she said that “every Belarusian has the right to live without repression and state terror in his own country.”

The Human Rights Group Viasna said that the double citizen of the UK-Belruz Julia lantern is also among the 52 released. The wife of a British diplomat, she was detained at the border when he entered Belarus last year and received a long prison last week. The BBC has asked the United Kingdom’s foreign office for confirmation.

President Trump said last month that he was talking to Lukashenko about a possible release from prisoners, while he was also looking for improved relations with Vladimir Putin.

Although his meeting at the top with Putin met without obvious success, Trump seems to have provided a deal with Lukashenko, who spent decades, isolated from his European neighbors for his authoritarian rule.