Belarus frees 52 prisoners after Trump appeal, US eases some sanctions on Minsk

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Belarus released 52 prisoners of various nationalities on Thursday after an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump and they were headed to Lithuania with the U.S. delegation that negotiated their release, the U.S. embassy in Vilnius said.

Trump had earlier called on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to release detainees whom the U.S. leader has described as "hostages". Belarus later confirmed their release.

In return for Lukashenko's gesture, the U.S. 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 U.S. embassy spokesperson in Vilnius said.

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

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

It was also not immediately clear whether those released included some of the most prominent critics of Lukashenko's decades-old rule, such as human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

"What happened (today) is a great diplomatic success for the United States and for us all," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said, as he announced that the ex-prisoners were crossing into Lithuania, a NATO and EU member state.

Belarus' state news agency Belta said they included 14 foreign nationals from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, Britain and Germany.

'RARE ACT OF PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP'

Belta also quoted John Coale, a lawyer who headed the U.S. delegation, as saying that Trump had told Lukashenko that Washington wants to reopen its embassy in Minsk.

Earlier, Coale had 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 also praised the U.S. leader for seeking a peace deal in Ukraine.

"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 claim that he has solved six or seven world conflicts.

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

Trump has flattered the veteran leader, long treated as a pariah by the West, and said he plans to meet with him. Last week he described him as a "very respected man, strong person, strong leader".

The release took place at a difficult moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, a day after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones over its territory and on the eve of a major joint exercise between the Russian and Belarusian armed forces.

Belarus shares borders with three NATO countries and with Ukraine. Lukashenko allowed Putin to use Belarusian territory for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but his army has not directly participated in the war.

Vytis Jurkonis, a Belarus human rights activist who leads the Vilnius office of Freedom House, a U.S. government-funded human rights advocacy organization, told Reuters that Lukashenko was using the prisoners to leverage his own influence.

"Lukashenko is dragging out the release of the political prisoners because he does not have much else to trade with the West. At the same time, he is continuing to arrest more prisoners," Jurkonis said.

"He is using the releases to uphold the illusion of change in Belarus, but the real change would be happening if terror in the country ceases, the exiles are allowed to return, the Russian army leaves."

Lukashenko says there are no political prisoners in Belarus and that those behind bars are law-breakers who chose their own fate.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Terje Solsvik, William Maclean)