Lukashenko frees 52 detainees, including European nationals, as Minsk tests warmer ties with Washington.
Belarus on Thursday released 52 prisoners — among them high-profile dissidents and 14 foreign nationals — in what strongman Alexander Lukashenko described as a gesture made “at the request” of U.S. President Donald Trump. The freed men and women crossed into Lithuania to emotional scenes, where President Gitanas Nausėda hailed the moment as “No man left behind.”
It marks the largest political prisoner release in Belarus since mass arrests began in the wake of Lukashenko’s disputed 2020 election. Among those freed was Mikalai Statkevich, the veteran opposition leader who once stood against Lukashenko at the ballot box and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Defiant to the end, Statkevich refused deportation to Lithuania, choosing instead to remain in Belarus despite the risk of re-arrest.
Trump’s fingerprints were visible throughout. John Coale, a senior emissary dispatched by the White House, personally delivered a letter from Trump and First Lady Melania to Lukashenko, along with cufflinks engraved with the White House. Coale also informed Minsk that the U.S. would ease some sanctions on Belarus’ national airline, Belavia, allowing it to service its Boeing fleet — a rare concession from Washington.
For Lukashenko, who has long been cast as Europe’s “last dictator,” the prisoner release doubles as both diplomacy and survival tactic. By crediting Trump for the gesture, he signaled an opening to Washington at a moment of deepening isolation from Moscow and intensifying sanctions from Europe. “No matter how banal it may sound, I want to thank your President,” Lukashenko said, pointedly framing Trump as a peacemaker in the region.
The releases included six Lithuanians, two Latvians, two Poles, two Germans, and one citizen each from France and the United Kingdom, in addition to dozens of Belarusians. Human rights groups confirmed the freedom of other well-known dissidents, including philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich and Lithuanian national Elena Ramanauskienė, who was sentenced last year on what advocates called “fabricated charges.”
But even as Lithuania’s foreign minister welcomed Ramanauskienė home, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, exiled in Vilnius, cautioned that hundreds remain behind bars. “Every Belarusian has the right to live without repression and state terror,” she said, warning that Statkevich’s decision to remain in Minsk could cost him his freedom once more.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, framed the moment as proof of leverage. A senior U.S. official said further sanctions relief would depend on additional prisoner releases and “constructive engagement,” adding that Washington seeks to reopen its embassy in Minsk.
For now, the release is both symbolic and strategic: a fragile opening between an autocrat looking for options, a U.S. president eager to claim credit for freedom abroad, and a Europe caught between celebration and caution.
