Belarus has released 123 prisoners, including prominent opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova, after the United States agreed to lift sanctions on the Eastern European country, the BBC reports today.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatski is also among those released, following talks in Minsk with US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Belarus, John Cole.
The United States has agreed to lift sanctions on potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer production and an important export product for Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"As relations between the two countries normalize, more and more sanctions will be lifted," Kohl said, according to the BBC.
The European Union (EU) has not recognized Lukashenko as president.
Kolesnikova has been in prison since 2020, and she spent much of that time in solitary confinement.
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Her sister, Tatjana Homič, who tirelessly campaigned for her release, managed to speak to her via video call shortly afterwards and confirmed the news to the BBC.
Kolesnikova was handed over to Ukraine along with 113 other prisoners, the Kiev-based Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced, according to the BBC.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Ukraine said that after receiving the necessary medical care, the prisoners would be transported to Poland and Lithuania.
A spokesman for exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told Agence France-Presse that the decision to send them to Ukraine was unexpected and was made by Lukashenko.
Homich said that the first thing Kolesnikova said when they spoke was: "Thank you to the American administration, President Trump (and) the Belarusian government as well for leading, discussing and conducting these negotiations."
The deal is a major achievement for Lukashenko, and the authoritarian leader will also welcome the fact that the Americans have ended his international isolation, according to the BBC.
In addition to the EU, the US has not recognized Lukashenko as president, following, as the BBC reports, unfair elections five years ago, which led to mass street protests that were brutally suppressed by the police.
Hundreds of people were arrested then – among them Kolesnikov – and strong political repression continued thereafter.
Western sanctions were further tightened after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when troops entered through Belarus and missiles were launched from its territory.
Belarusian state media quoted Kol as saying that sanctions on potash would be lifted immediately.
The US envoy also said he had discussed Ukraine with Lukashenko and what help Minsk could offer in negotiations with Putin.
The attempt to engage with Minsk is part of a major shift in American policy, which has put the US at serious odds with Europe – where the approach is based on sanctions and isolation.
Viktor Babariko, a Belarusian opposition politician who was arrested five years ago, was also released today, along with Marina Zolotova, editor-in-chief of the independent news portal Tut.by.
Reuters reported that Lukashenko released 123 prisoners today, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski and prominent opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, as part of a deal brokered by a Trump envoy.
In return, the US agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key component in the production of fertilizer, of which Belarus is one of the world's leading producers.
The prisoner release is by far the largest carried out by Lukashenko since the Trump administration began talks this year with the longtime authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters.
Western governments have previously shunned him for his suppression of dissent and support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Trump envoy John Cole told Reuters that about 1.000 remaining political prisoners in Belarus could be released, possibly in one large group, in the coming months.
"I think it's more than possible, I would say it's likely... We're on the right track, the momentum is there," Cole said.
If there were no political prisoners left in Belarus, most sanctions could be lifted. "I think it's a fair exchange," Kohl added.
Bjaljacki: the fight for human rights continues
Nine of the released prisoners left Belarus for Lithuania, while 114 were transferred to Ukraine, officials said, according to Reuters.
Bialjacki, one of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, is a human rights activist who fought for political prisoners for years before becoming one himself. He has been in prison since July 2021.
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Visibly older than the last time he appeared in public, he smiled broadly as he hugged exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya upon her arrival at the US Embassy in Lithuania.
Byaljacki told Reuters that he had spent the previous night on a prison bench in a room with nearly 40 people and was still getting used to the idea of being free.
He said that the goals of the fight for human rights, for which he and his colleagues received the Nobel Prize, have not yet been achieved.
"Thousands of people have been and are still in prison... So our fight continues," he said in his first public statements in three years since receiving the award.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed "deep relief and sincere joy" at his release.
Kolesnikova, one of the leaders of the mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020, was among a large group that was bused to Ukraine.
"Of course, it is, first of all, a feeling of incredible happiness: seeing with your own eyes the people you love, hugging them and realizing that now we are all free people. It is a great joy to see my first free sunset," she said in a video posted on the Ukrainian Telegram channel Hochu Zhit.
The video also shows him hugging Viktor Babarik, an opposition politician arrested in 2020 as he prepared to run against Lukashenko in the election. Babarik said his son Eduard remains in prison in Belarus.
Maria Kolesnikova's sister, Tatiana Khomich, told Reuters that she feared her sister might refuse to leave Belarus and was prepared to try to persuade her.
"I'm really looking forward to hugging Maria... The last five years have been very difficult for us, but now I've spoken to her on the phone and it feels like those five years never existed," she said.
US diplomacy aims to separate Lukashenko from Putin
US officials told Reuters that the engagement with Lukashenko is part of an effort to distance him, at least partially, from Putin's influence - an effort that the Belarusian opposition has so far viewed with marked skepticism.
The US and EU imposed broad sanctions on Belarus after Minsk violently suppressed protests following disputed 2020 elections, with almost all of Lukashenko's opponents who had not fled abroad ending up in prison.
The sanctions were further tightened after Lukashenko allowed Belarus to serve as a springboard for a Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Belarusian opposition in exile expressed gratitude to Trump and stated that the fact that Lukashenko agreed to release prisoners in exchange for concessions on potash is proof of the effectiveness of the sanctions.
The opposition has consistently stressed that it sees Trump's approach to Lukashenko as a humanitarian effort, but that EU sanctions should remain in place.
"US sanctions are about people. EU sanctions are about systemic change – stopping the war, enabling democratic transition and ensuring accountability. These approaches are not contradictory; they complement each other," said exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovska.
Lukashenko has previously denied that there are political prisoners in Belarus, calling them "bandits." Back in August, he asked why he should release people he sees as opponents of the state who could "re-engage in war against us."
Trump called Lukashenko "the highly respected president of Belarus," a description that has angered the opposition, which sees him as a dictator. He called on him to release up to 1.300 or 1.400 prisoners, whom Trump described as "hostages."
"The United States stands ready for additional engagement with Belarus that advances American interests and will continue diplomatic efforts to release the remaining political prisoners in Belarus," the US Embassy in Lithuania said.
The Belarusian human rights organization Vyasna – which the authorities in Minsk label as extremist – said that on the eve of today's releases, the number of political prisoners stood at 1.227.
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