![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/belarus-us-U4QNSGGPDNGLFLG74RSUIL5X5M.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBelarus has freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and dozens of other political prisoners, capping two days of talks with Washington aimed at improving ties and getting crippling US sanctions lifted on a key Belarusian agricultural export.<\/p>\n
President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners, Belarus\u2019 state news agency, Belta, reported. In exchange, the US said it was lifting sanctions on the Eastern European country’s potash sector,<\/p>\n
A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been repeatedly sanctioned by the West for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
John Coale, the US special envoy for Belarus who met with Lukashenko in Minsk on Friday and Saturday, described the talks to reporters as \u201cvery productive” and said normalising relations between the two countries was \u201cour goal,\u201d Belta reported.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In this photo released by Belarusian presidential press service, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, and presidential envoy John Coale shake hands during their meeting in Minsk (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re lifting sanctions, releasing prisoners. We\u2019re constantly talking to each other,\u201d Coale said, adding that the relationship between the US and Belarus was moving from \u201cbaby steps to more confident steps\u201d as they increased dialogue, the Belarusian news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Belarus has released hundreds of prisoners since July 2024. <\/p>\n
Among the 123 freed Saturday were a US citizen, six citizens of US allied countries, and five Ukrainian citizens, a US official told The Associated Press in an email. <\/p>\n
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic negotiations, described the release as \u201ca significant milestone in US-Belarus engagement\u201d and \u201cyet another diplomatic victory\u201d for US president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
![\"Nobel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/belarus-us-RYCU2HTHZBEKPPQDIIOPEVKLZ4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, one of released Belarusian prisoners, arrives at the US Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
The official said Trump\u2019s engagement so far \u201chas led to the release of over 200 political prisoners in Belarus, including six unjustly detained US citizens and over 60 citizens of US Allies and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who are some of the more prominent freed prisoners?<\/p>\n
Pavel Sapelka, an advocate with the Viasna rights group, confirmed to the AP that Bialiatski and Kolesnikova were among those released.<\/p>\n
Bialiatski, a human rights advocate who founded Viasna, was in jail when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 along with the prominent Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine\u2019s Centre for Civil Liberties. <\/p>\n
He was later convicted of smuggling and financing actions that violated public order \u2014 charges that were widely denounced as politically motivated \u2014 and sentenced to 10 years in 2023.<\/p>\n
Bialiatski told the AP by phone Saturday that his release after 1613 days behind bars came as a surprise \u2014 in the morning, he was still in an overcrowded prison cell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like I jumped out of icy water into a normal, warm room, so I have to adapt. After isolation, I need to get information about what\u2019s going on,” said Bialiatski, who seemed energetic but pale and emaciated in post-release videos and photos.<\/p>\n
![\"Belarusian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/belarus-us-QL7JW5KUCZDZLMWBGV2HYTNVLA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks to journalists as she waits to meet released Belarusian prisoners (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
He vowed to continue his work, stressing that \u201cmore than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus remain behind bars simply because they chose freedom. And, of course, I am their voice.”<\/p>\n
Kolesnikova, meanwhile, was a key figure in the mass protests that rocked Belarus in 2020 and is a close ally of an opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.<\/p>\n
Known for her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming a heart with her hands, Kolesnikova became an even greater symbol of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her in September 2020. <\/p>\n
Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces at the frontier, tore up her passport and walked back into Belarus.<\/p>\n
The 43-year-old professional flutist was convicted in 2021 on charges including conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Others who were freed<\/p>\n
Among the others who were released, according to Viasna, was Viktar Babaryka \u2014 an opposition figure who had sought to challenge Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, widely seen as rigged, before being convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges he rejected as political.<\/p>\n
Viasna reported that the group’s imprisoned advocates, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, and prominent opposition figure Maxim Znak were also freed. <\/p>\n
But it later said it was clarifying its report about Stefanovic’s release, and Bialiatski told the AP that Stefanovic had not been freed, though he hopes he will be soon.<\/p>\n
Most of the freed prisoners were sent to Ukraine, Franak Viachorka, Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s senior adviser, told the AP. <\/p>\n
Eight or nine others, including Bialiatski, were being sent to Lithuania on Saturday, and more prisoners will be taken to the Baltic country in the next few days, Viachorka said.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian authorities confirmed that Belarus had handed over 114 civilians, including five Ukrainian nationals. Freed Belarusian nationals \u201cat their request\u201d and \u201cafter being given necessary medical treatment\u201d will be taken to Poland and Lithuania, they said.<\/p>\n
Lukashenko\u2019s press secretary, Natalya Eismont, said those released were sent to Ukraine because Kyiv was to free several imprisoned Belarusian and Russian nationals as part of the deal, although Ukrainian officials haven’t confirmed the claim yet.<\/p>\n
Lukashenko wants rapprochement with the West<\/p>\n
When US officials last met with Lukashenko in September, Washington eased some of the sanctions on Belarus while Minsk released more than 50 political prisoners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe freeing of political prisoners means that Lukashenko understands the pain of Western sanctions and is seeking to ease them,\u201d Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader in exile, told the AP on Saturday.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cBut let\u2019s not be naive: Lukashenko hasn\u2019t changed his policies, his crackdown continues and he keeps on supporting Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s why we need to be extremely cautious with any talk of sanctions relief, so that we don’t reinforce Russia’s war machine and encourage continued repressions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanctions have hit the key export hard<\/p>\n
Belarus, which previously accounted for about 20% of global potash fertilizer exports, has been forced to sharply cut them after Western sanctions targeted state producer Belaruskali and cut off transit through Lithuania\u2019s port in Klaipeda, the country\u2019s main export route.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctions by the US, EU and their allies have significantly weakened Belarus\u2019s potash industry, depriving the country of a key source of foreign exchange earnings and access to key markets,\u201d Anastasiya Luzgina, an analyst at the Belarusian Economic Research Center BEROC, told the AP, noting that Minsk likely hopes this paves the way for easing the more painful European sanctions.<\/p>\n
The latest round of US-Belarus talks also touched on Venezuela, as well as Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Belta reported.<\/p>\n
Coale told reporters that Lukashenko had given \u201cgood advice\u201d on how to address the war, saying that Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin were \u201clongtime friends\u201d with \u201cthe necessary level of relationship to discuss such issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US official told the AP that \u201ccontinued progress in US-Belarus relations” also requires steps to resolve tensions between Belarus and neighboring Lithuania, which is a member of the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda welcomed the prisoners\u2019 release, praising their \u201cremarkable courage\u201d in a post on X and adding that \u201cLithuania stands with them and all who strive for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lithuanian government this week declared a national emergency over security risks posed by meteorological balloons sent from Belarus. <\/p>\n
The balloons forced Lithuania to repeatedly shut down its main airport, stranding thousands of people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belarus has freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and dozens of other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,64,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-182996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}