Lukashenko meets US Envoy John Coale – Photo Courtesy of the President of the Republic of BelarusThe unlikely Trump-Lukashenko cooperation.We have been reporting on the advances achieved by Donald J. Trump’s administration in the negotiations with Belarus regarding the freeing of prisoners.So, today (16), another victory was obtained by Trump’s diplomacy with the release of 25 prisoners.Over the years, Trump has consistently manifested respect and even admiration for Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko.Back in August 2025, Trump posted about ‘a wonderful talk with the highly respected President of Belarus […] to thank him for the release of 16 prisoners. We are also discussing the release of 1,300 additional prisoners. Our conversation was a very good one.”In February 2026, during remarks to reporters, Trump said, regarding Lukashenko, that ‘we have a good relationship, and the leader is somebody that I have a lot of respect for. With Belarus, we have a very good relationship. And I like this leader a lot’.In March, Trump posted: ‘Last week, my Envoy to Belarus, John Coale, after negotiating with Highly Respected President Alexander Lukashenko, got 250 more Political Prisoners freed! This brings the total Prisoners gracefully released by President Lukashenko to well over 500, since last May. I would like to give my warmest THANK YOU to the President for doing this, and I look forward to being with him at the next Board of Peace meeting! President DONALD J. TRUMP’In a world where so many ‘leasers’ antagonize Trump to no end, he thanked the Belarusian for his friendship and cooperation, calling it ‘So nice!’BREAKING:Belarus has freed 25 political prisoners. They are now in Lithuania.U.S. special envoy John Coale published a photo of those released.Among them are journalists, musicians, lawyers, and other well-known protest figures. pic.twitter.com/5CH31mdVgJ— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 16, 2026Today, this cooperation yielded another step in progress, as Belarus has agreed to free 25 prisoners in return for a further easing of U.S. sanctions.Reuters reported:“The deal was part of lengthy negotiations in which Washington is urging Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to free hundreds of people including human rights campaigners, political activists, journalists and lawyers in exchange for sanctions relief and an easing of his international isolation.Trump’s envoy, John Coale, told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk: ‘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’.” The US will lift sanctions on two Belarusian companies in exchange for Minsk releasing 25 prisoners. https://t.co/b5av06OABh— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) September 16, 2026While the MSM is quick to point out that freeing 25 prisoners was a figure much lower than the 250 that were released in March, we see that Coale calls it ‘an interim deal’, suggesting more can be about to be accomplished.“’We will continue to improve US-Belarus relations and are working to secure the release of more people in the very near future. We are not finished!’ he posted later on X.”Euronews reported:“The US and many other Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus after it allowed Russia to use its territory to invade Ukraine in 2022. Washington has now eased some sanctions which affected paint manufacturer Lakokraska and forestry sector group Bellesbumprom.[…] Opposition leader in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya celebrated the release of the prisoners in a post on X, but warned that ‘it is clear that Lukashenka does not want to release all political prisoners’.”EXCLUSIVE: US envoy hopes Belarus will release hundreds more prisoners next month https://t.co/F2HIsYxZbF https://t.co/F2HIsYxZbF— Reuters (@Reuters) September 16, 2026Read more:A WIN FOR DIPLOMACY: Belarus’ Lukashenko Releases 52 Prisoners After an Appeal From Trump and Visit of US Envoy John Coale (VIDEOS)/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i