Overview

• Fourteen prisoners, including key dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski, were flown to Lithuania where they are receiving care.
• US envoy Keith Kellogg secured their release during rare talks with President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.
• Tsikhanouski was arrested in 2020 after declaring his presidential bid, receiving an 18-year sentence on charges of organising mass unrest.
• Despite the gesture, over 1,000 political detainees remain in Belarusian jails according to opposition figures.
• Observers view the release as an effort by Minsk to reduce its international isolation by pressuring for sanctions relief.