Belarusian authorities have agreed to release 25 prisoners as part of an interim deal with the United States that will see Washington lift sanctions on two Belarusian companies, U.S. special envoy John Coale said Wednesday.
Coale, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, announced the agreement a day after meeting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who had called for the removal of remaining U.S. sanctions against his country.
Coale said on X, “25 prisoners are free today!”, describing the development as a result of President Trump’s direct diplomatic engagement.
He thanked Lukashenko and authorities in Lithuania for their cooperation, adding that Washington would continue efforts to improve relations with Belarus and secure the release of additional prisoners.
“We will continue to improve U.S.-Belarus relations and are working to secure the release of more people in the very near future. We are not finished!”
John Coale
Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Coale described the arrangement as “an interim deal” and a “show of good will.” Under the agreement, Belarus will release 25 people while the United States lifts sanctions imposed on two Belarusian companies, Lakokraska and Bellesbumprom.
Coale said that further prisoner releases and additional sanctions relief could follow once the remaining details of the broader arrangement are agreed upon.
Belarusian authorities had not publicly announced details of the prisoner releases at the time of Coale’s announcement. The development comes amid a series of diplomatic engagements between Washington and Minsk since Trump returned to the White House for his second term.
Lukashenko, who has governed Belarus for more than three decades, has faced repeated Western sanctions over his government’s human rights record and its support for Russia. Belarus allowed Moscow to use its territory in connection with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, further deepening tensions between Minsk and Western governments.
Since Trump’s return to office, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners through a series of U.S.-mediated agreements that have also resulted in limited sanctions relief.
As part of a deal in March that Washington helped broker, Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners, while the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on two Belarusian state banks and the country’s Finance Ministry, and to remove the top Belarusian potash producers from a sanctions list.
Another deal in April released prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut in a swap with Poland that saw a total of 10 people freed.
The latest agreement continues that pattern, linking the release of prisoners with changes to U.S. sanctions against Belarusian entities.
Among those released today were media managers Andrei Aliaksandrau and Liudmila Chekina, as well as journalists Dzmitry Navazhylau and Kiryl Pazniak.
The releases provide another point of engagement between Washington and Minsk at a time when the United States has sought to use direct diplomacy to secure the release of people detained by Belarusian authorities.
However, the agreement has not been presented as a broader political settlement, and questions remain over the status of hundreds of other prisoners held in Belarus.
Tsikhanouskaya Says More Prisoners Must Be Freed
Belarusian opposition leader-in-exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya welcomed the release of the 25 prisoners but stressed that the development should not be viewed as the end of the country’s political repression.
“This is an important step, but only a step. Many political prisoners remain behind bars.”
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Tsikhanouskaya, who met some of the freed prisoners in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, said that the releases should not be interpreted as evidence of broader political change in Belarus.
For Lukashenko, she said, “people are bargaining chips — something he can trade and then replace with new hostages.”
She called for an end to what she described as a cycle of repression, saying, “we have to break this vicious cycle of repression.”
According to the Viasna human rights centre, Belarus still has 887 political prisoners. “Repressions are continuing,” Tsikhanouskaya said, adding that “ultimately, every political prisoner must be released.”
Her comments emphasize the gap between the diplomatic progress represented by individual prisoner releases and the wider political situation in Belarus, where opposition figures and human rights groups continue to raise concerns about people remaining in detention.
Lukashenko’s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged.
In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures fled the country or were imprisoned.
The latest agreement nevertheless represents another instance of U.S.-Belarus engagement producing prisoner releases and limited sanctions relief, with Coale indicating that further negotiations could lead to additional steps in the near future.
READ ALSO: Sánchez Rules Out Moroccan Role In Ceuta Migrant Surge
