Belarus frees Polish journalist in 10-person swap
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Belarus released Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut as part of a prisoner exchange on the Polish border.
In return, Poland released Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, whom it was preparing to extradite to Ukraine.
Tusk said five prisoners were released for five Belarusian or Russian citizens, including Polish priest Grzegorz Gawel and an unnamed Belarusian who Tusk said was cooperating with Polish special services.
The names of all those released were not immediately released.
It was not immediately clear who, other than Butyagin, was handed over in return.
Poczobut, a Belarusian of Polish origin, was arrested in March 2021 on charges of inciting ethnic hostility and undermining the security of Belarus and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023.
Poland said the charges were unfair and politically motivated and that it had long wanted his release.
“Andrzej Poczobut is free! Welcome home to Poland, my friend,” Tusk wrote on social media platform X.
Tusk described Poczobut as “indomitable” and quoted their first conversation after his release: “‘Will I be able to go back there (to Belarus)?’ – these were his first words. ‘Only you decide. “You’re a free man now,” I replied.
Poczobut received the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union’s human rights award.
Gawel, a Carmelite priest from Krakow, was detained by Belarusian authorities last year on espionage charges.
Poland has become a haven for opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Minsk’s main ally Russia launches a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Lukashenko has released hundreds of prisoners in the last two years; This process has accelerated since Donald Trump sent a special envoy, John Coale, to return to the White House and negotiate with him.
In response, the United States began to lift sanctions against Belarus.
Coale told Reuters on Tuesday that he expected to secure the release of more prisoners from Belarus next month, adding that the lifting of further sanctions on Minsk was always a possibility if that happened.
Human rights groups say there are still more than 830 political prisoners in Belarusian prisons.
Russia’s FSB security service said two Russian citizens would return home as part of the swap, state news agency TASS reported.
One of them was Butyagin, who was arrested in Poland in December.
He had to be handed over to Ukraine, which accused him of carrying out unauthorized excavations in Crimea and looting artifacts.
Russia expressed anger at his arrest and demanded his release.
The FSB said the other Russian released was the wife of a Russian soldier who served with Russian forces in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.
The statement stated that the two Russians were replaced by two Moldovan spies who came to Russia last year and were detained by Russian security agencies.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu wrote about
