The United States has lifted sanctions on several Belarusian entities and the country's Finance Ministry as Belarus announced the release of scores of prisoners -- including political detainees Kim Samusenko and journalist Ekaterina Andreeva.
US Special Envoy John Coale announced the sanctions relief for Belinvestbank and the Development Bank of Belarus, along with the removal of all remaining sanctions on potash companies Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company, and Agrorozkvit after a meeting on March 19 with Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk.
In the deal, Coale said 250 prisoners held in Belarus were being released in what he called "a significant humanitarian milestone and a testament to the President's [Donald Trump] commitment to direct, hard-nosed diplomacy." Of those, 15 were sent to neighboring Lithuania, while the remainder were released domestically.
"Kim Samusenko is free!!! Details later. Many thanks to everyone who supported our family! Many thanks to all democratic political and public forces who made the release possible!" his wife Alesya Zhitkova wrote on Facebook.
Andreeva, a journalist for Belsat who was held for more than five years or live streaming a brutal police crackdown on a peaceful rally for Roman Bandarenka, who was killed by security forces, was now in Lithuania, her family told RFE/RL's Belarus service.
The release is the latest sign of a thawing in relations between Washington and Minsk since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
In December, 123 prisoners were freed in a deal that included 2020 protest leader Maryya Kalesnikava and Nobel laureate Ales Byalyatski, as well as citizens of several other countries.
Belarus has been subject to crippling Western sanctions imposed following the country's cooperation with Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and a deadly crackdown on civil society after the authoritarian Lukashenko claimed victory in a 2020 election that the opposition any many Western nations called "rigged."
Even though it has conducted a series of prisoner releases, hundreds of people -- many classified as political prisoners -- remain in custody, according to the Vyasna human rights group.
