STORY: :: Vilnius, Lithuania

:: December 13, 2025

Freed prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, were greeted at the U.S. embassy in Lithuania's capital on Saturday.

The hugs and handshakes came after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners... following talks with an envoy for President Donald Trump.

In return, the United States agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash - a key component in fertilizers.

The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko - a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin - since Trump's administration opened talks this year.

:: President of the Republic of Belarus

Nobel winner Bialiatski is a human rights campaigner who fought for years on behalf of political prisoners before becoming one himself. He had been in jail since July 2021.

On Saturday, Bialiatski told reporters, quote, "Being released means meeting with family, meeting with friends and continuing my work as a human rights defender."

:: Minsk, Belarus

:: August 17, 2020

Other freed prisoners included opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava. She was a leader of mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020.

:: Minsk, Belarus

:: June 13, 2020

And Viktar Babaryka, who was arrested in 2020 while preparing to run against Lukashenko in an election.

:: I want to live project via Telegram

More than 100 of the released prisoners were taken to Ukraine, according to Kyiv's POW coordination center...

Who said the group included Ukrainian citizens accused of working for Ukrainian intelligence and Belarusian political prisoners.

U.S. officials have told Reuters that engaging with Lukashenko is part of an effort to peel him away from Putin's influence, at least to a degree.

Here's Trump's envoy, John Coale.

:: Vilnius, Lithuania

"I think that President Lukashenko, who should get a tremendous amount of credit for this. I think that he is moving, he wants more normalized relationship with the United States and the West. So we're moving in that direction."

:: Minsk, Belarus

:: June 19, 2020

The U.S. and the European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus after Minsk launched a violent crackdown on protesters following a disputed election in 2020, jailing nearly all opponents of Lukashenko who did not flee abroad.

:: Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty

Sanctions were tightened after Lukashenko allowed Belarus to serve as a staging ground for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.