Lukashenko releases another 52 political prisoners from Belarusian jails after meeting with Trump envoy

Fifty-two political prisoners including opposition figures, journalists, and anti-government protesters have been released from jails in Belarus, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda announced on X on Thursday.

The releases, which followed a meeting between the country’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko and US President Donald Trump’s representative John Cole in Minsk on Thursday morning, come just three months after the US negotiated the release of 14 political prisoners in June, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, one of Belarus’s most prominent opposition politicians.

“No man left behind! 52 prisoners safely crossed the Lithuanian border from Belarus today, leaving behind barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear. Among them, which is especially important to me, were six Lithuanians,” Nausėda wrote, adding that he was “deeply grateful” to the United States and to Trump personally “for their continued efforts to free political prisoners”.

In an apparent quid pro quo, the US has agreed to lift sanctions on Belavia, the national airline of Belarus, and to reopen its embassy in Minsk, which was closed in February 2022 following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a significant portion of which was launched from the territory of Belarus.

Among the 52 prisoners released on Wednesday was the one-time Belarusian presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, who ran against Lukashenko in 2010, and who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2021.

Noting that 52 was “a great many”, Nausėda nevertheless reminded people that “more than 1,000 political prisoners still remain in Belarusian prisons” and urged the international community not to stop until they could all “see freedom”.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who currently leads the Belarusian opposition from exile in Lithuania, also welcomed the news on X and said she was grateful for the “strong” US leadership, though she also cautioned that some “1,200+ hostages remain — all must be released”.