Belarus frees Nobel winner as US lifts more sanctions

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava after two days of talks with an envoy for President Donald Trump, a US statement said.

Mr Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel peace prize, 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.

After being freed, he stressed he would carry on fighting for civil rights and freedom for political prisoners.

"Our fight continues, and the Nobel Prize was, I think, a certain acknowledgement of our activity, our aspirations that have not yet come to fruition, therefore the fight continues," he told opposition media outlet Belsat in a televised interview from Vilnius.

In return for the release of prisoners, the US agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Potash is a key component in fertilisers, and the former Soviet state is a leading global producer.

Five Ukrainians were among the prisoners released by Belarus in the US-brokered deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, expressing gratitude to Washington for aiding their release.

"Thanks to the active role of the United States and the cooperation of our intelligence services, about a hundred people, including five Ukrainians, are now being released," he wrote on Telegram.

"We are assisting our American partners to ensure that Ukraine receives the appropriate assistance."

A US citizen was also among those released, a US official has said.

Hailing the prisoner release as "yet another testament to President Trump's leadership" and a "significant milestone in US-Belarus engagement," the official - speaking on condition of anonymity - thanked US ally Lithuania for helping facilitate the release.

They also called for the Belarusian government to work toward resolving recent complaints by Vilnius.

The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Mr Lukashenko since Mr Trump's administration opened talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Western governments had previously shunned him because of his crushing of dissent and backing for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Also freed were Ms Kalesnikava, a leader of mass protests against Mr Lukashenko in 2020, and Viktar Babaryka, who was arrested that year while preparing to run against the president in an election.

US officials told Reuters that engaging with Mr Lukashenko is part of an effort to peel him away from Mr Putin's influence, at least to a degree - an effort that the Belarus opposition, until now, has viewed with extreme scepticism.

Mr Trump's envoy, John Coale, had earlier told reporters in Minsk: "Per the instructions of President Trump, we, the United States, will be lifting sanctions on potash."

The US 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 Mr Lukashenko who did not flee abroad.

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

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