Belarus has released 52 prisoners following mediation by the United States, which has promised to grant Minsk sanctions relief.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Thursday that the prisoners, along with the US delegation, had crossed into Lithuania.

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“No man left behind! 52 prisoners safely crossed the Lithuanian border from Belarus today, leaving behind barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear,” he wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump had called on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to release detainees whom the US leader has described as “hostages”. Belarus later confirmed their release.

In return for Lukashenko’s gesture, Washington will grant sanctions relief to Belarus’s national airline Belavia, allowing it to service and buy components for its fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft, the US embassy spokesperson in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius said.

Sanctions relief

It was the biggest batch of prisoners yet pardoned by Lukashenko, who is seeking to repair relations with the United States after years of isolation and sanctions on his former Soviet state.

But it was far short of the 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners whose release Trump had called for in a conversation with Lukashenko last month, as well as in subsequent social media posts.

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Those released include Ihar Losik, 33, a journalist sentenced in 2021 to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of inciting hatred and organising riots, the Belarus affairs section of the US embassy in Vilnius said.

The embassy could not immediately confirm whether prominent critics of Lukashenko’s decades-old rule, such as human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, were among those released.

Belarusian veteran dissident Mikola Statkevich was among the 52 political prisoners, according to rights group Vyasna.

“Among those released today is Mikola Statkevich,” it said on Telegram, adding that the 2010 presidential candidate had been sentenced to 14 years following the protests after the contested presidential elections of 2020.

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that an EU staff member was among the released prisoners, thanking “US partners for their efforts”.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the exiled Belarus opposition whose husband, Siarhei, was released from jail in June, said Thursday’s release covered only 4 percent of those designated as political prisoners, and did not signal any real change of policy by Lukashenko.

“We welcome their release, but in essence, this is a trade in human lives – people who should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a statement released to the Reuters news agency in which she urged the European Union to maintain sanctions on Belarus until democracy is established.

US envoy John Coale, who has been involved in the negotiations with Lukashenko, said he hoped for the release within a short time of all of the 1,400 Belarusian prisoners that Trump has described as “hostages”.

“Our mission is to get them all out now,” Coale told Reuters. “Eventually, hopefully within a short period of time everybody will be out,” he said.

‘A global deal’

Belarus’s state news agency BelTA said those released included 14 foreign nationals – from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

BelTA quoted Coale, the US deputy envoy for Ukraine, who headed the US delegation, as saying Trump had told Lukashenko that Washington wants to reopen its embassy in Minsk.

Coale had earlier passed a letter from Trump in English to Lukashenko, signed “Donald”, BelTA showed. The fact that Trump had signed the letter simply “Donald” was “a rare act of personal friendship”, it quoted Coale as saying.

“If Donald insists that he is ready to take in all these released prisoners, God bless you, let’s try to work out a global deal, as Mr Trump likes to say, a big deal,” said Lukashenko, who praised the US leader for seeking a peace deal in Ukraine.

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“Our main task is to stand with Trump and help him in his mission to establish peace,” BelTA later quoted Lukashenko as saying, referencing Trump’s assertion that he has resolved six or seven world conflicts.

Lukashenko has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule. He said as recently as August 22 that he was not prepared to release “bandits” who might “wage war” against the state.

Trump has said he plans to meet Lukashenko, long treated as a pariah by the West, and described him as a “very respected man, strong person, strong leader”.

The prisoners were released a day after Poland shot down what it said were Russian drones over its territory, and on the eve of joint military exercises involving Russia and Belarus.

Belarus shares borders with three NATO countries and with Ukraine. Lukashenko let Putin use Belarusian territory when invading Ukraine in 2022, but the Belarusian army has not directly participated in the war.