US lifts some Belarus sanctions in return for prisoners release, 11 September 2025

The US lifted some sanctions on a Belarus airline...as part of an effort to “fully normalise” relations with Minsk despite its role in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and recent drone attacks on Poland.

The airline Belavia will remain under US sanctions, but will receive some relief to service and buy components for its existing fleet, according to the US State Department.

The move was announced by US presidential envoy John Coale during a meeting with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, who agreed to release 52 political prisoners, though hundreds more remain behind bars.

“It is official, we lifted sanctions from Belavia,” Coale said. “I had a meeting with [US President Donald] Trump . . . and he said: do it immediately.”

Coale added: “We very much want to normalise bilateral relations, and we are ready to do everything to make this normalisation happen.”

The move marks the most significant step in easing the western sanctions regime imposed both on Belarus and Russia since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine...

“The lifting of sanctions on Belavia is very bad,” a Ukrainian official told the Financial Times. “But we expected it.” He stressed that the US had also expressed interest in Belarus’s chemical industry, a key export sector for the country...

The State Department spokesperson said the prisoner release showed the “tangible results of focused, hard-nosed diplomacy”. The official added that Washington was continuing efforts to secure the release of other political prisoners...

US officials have stressed to their Belarusian counterparts that the easing of sanctions on Belavia cannot be used as a back door to circumvent Russia sanctions, but it is unclear how this will be enforced in practice...