Trump envoy secures release of 25 Belarus prisoners as U.S. drops more sanctions

Belarus has agreed to free 25 prisoners in return for a further easing of U.S. sanctions, an envoy for President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. The deal was part of lengthy negotiations, under way since last year, in which Washington is urging Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to free hundreds of people including human rights campaigners, political activists, journalists and lawyers in return for sanctions relief. The process is sensitive because Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has long been shunned by the West for repressing his opponents and supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. European Union sanctions against Belarus remain firmly in place. “We agreed to an interim deal, and as a show of goodwill Belarus will release 25 people and in exchange the United States will lift sanctions on two companies,” Trump’s envoy, John Coale, told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk.