Overview
- Those freed include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava, and ex-presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka, according to rights advocates and state reports.
- Ukraine said it received 114 of the released detainees and Lithuania received nine, following two days of meetings between President Alexander Lukashenko and U.S. envoy John Coale.
- Coale described the discussions as very productive and said the goal is to normalize relations, with topics including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the situation in Venezuela.
- Human-rights groups and opposition figures welcomed the releases but stressed that roughly 1,200 political prisoners remain and that systemic repression continues.
- EU restrictions are still in force, and Belarus has been gradually freeing detainees since July 2024 as part of a broader outreach to the West.