Belarus frees 14 opposition activists after Kellogg's visit

Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Bloomberg News on Jun 21, 2025

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko released more than a dozen political prisoners, including the husband of a top opposition leader, after meeting with U.S. special presidential envoy General Keith Kellogg in Minsk.

Fourteen captives, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski, spouse of top opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, have been set free, the exiled human rights center Viasna said on Telegram. The former prisoners are in Lithuania and receiving care, the government in Vilnius said.

“My husband Siarhei is free,” Tsikhanouskaya said on the X social media site, thanking Kellogg, President Donald Trump, the U.S. administration and the European Union for their efforts.

Lukashenko’s office hasn’t commented. The White House hasn’t commented on Kellogg’s meeting or the prisoners’ release.

European leaders, including European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland, hailed the release of Tsikhanouski and others, but urged action on those still held in Belarus.

Kellogg and Lukashenko met earlier on Saturday, when the envoy became the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Belarus in years. Previously, in February 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo traveled to Belarus in what was the first visit by a top-ranked U.S. diplomat since 1993.

“You’ve stirred up quite a lot of noise around the world with your visit. But I’m surprised by that — can’t we have a normal dialogue and talk about our affairs, about the relations between Belarus and the United States of America?” Lukashenko said in opening remarks at the meeting.

The meeting agenda included international issues and the overall situation in the world, as well as Belarusian-American relations, the state-owned agency Belta reported.

Tsikhanouski, a popular video blogger, announced his bid to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election and was arrested shortly after. His wife ran in place of him as the main competitor to Lukashenko, triggering a massive wave of support and subsequent unprecedented protests against Lukashenko’s claim of winning the vote.

Others released on Saturday included political activists and a journalist.

Estonia’s foreign ministry announced that a citizen, Allan Roio, was among those released from Belarus with U.S. help. Founder of an NGO, Roio had been held since January 2024.

Lukashenko, 70, has been under various sanctions for nearly a decade due to his role in undermining democratic processes in the former Soviet republic. He was re-designated by the U.S. under expanded penalties in 2022, in response to Minsk’s support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lukashenko remains Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally.

The Belarusian strongman has remained in power for more than three decades, with nearly 1,200 people in the country currently recognized as political prisoners, according to Viasna.

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(With assistance from Milda Seputyte, Ott Tammik and Olesia Safronova.)