VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — An envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Washington has lifted sanctions on Belarus national air carrier, Belavia.
John Coale, Trump’s deputy Ukraine envoy, made the announcement at a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
Video of the announcement was posted by Belarusian state media as it became public that the country had freed dozens of prisoners.
The meeting took place almost a month after Trump spoke to Lukashenko about releasing imprisoned dissidents.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Belarus has freed 52 prisoners, and they have crossed into Lithuania, the Lithuanian president said Thursday.
Among those released were 14 foreigners — six Lithuanians, two Latvians, two Poles, two Germans, one French national and one U.K. national — according to the Belarusian presidency's press service.
In June, Belarus freed Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and 13 others following a rare visit by a senior envoy from the Trump administration.
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, about the release of more prisoners.
“I am deeply grateful to the United States and personally to President @realDonaldTrump for their continued efforts to free political prisoners. 52 is a lot. A great many. Yet more than 1,000 political prisoners still remain in Belarusian prisons and we cannot stop until they see freedom!” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X.
Nauseda said the prisoners left “behind barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear.”
Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, relentlessly cracking down on the opposition and independent media.
But his rule was challenged in the aftermath of Belarus’ presidential election in August 2020. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets to protest Lukashenko’s reelection in a vote widely seen as rigged, triggering the largest protests in the country’s history. In the ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures either fled the country or were imprisoned.
Almost 1,200 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus, according to human rights group Viasna.
Lukashenko has since extended his rule for a seventh term following a January 2025 election that the opposition called a farce. Since July 2024, he has pardoned nearly 300 people, including imprisoned U.S. citizens, seeking to mend ties with the West.
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