A day after being released in a US-brokered deal with Minsk, several Belarusian political prisoners who spent more than four years behind bars said they had no regrets for standing up to authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Speaking to reporters on December 14 in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, prominent figures in the 2020 opposition movement, Viktar Babaryka and Maryya Kalesnikava told reporters they felt they won a battle despite losing years of their lives.
"There are times when we face difficult questions and have to make difficult choices. I made this difficult choice very easily because I was and remain absolutely certain that I supported the right idea, I supported my values....There are many of us like this, I am not alone.... If at critical moments you can, then you should," said Kalesnikava.
Disputed 2020 Election
One of the leaders of protests that followed a disputed presidential election in August 2020 that handed Lukashenko a sixth term in office, Kalesnikava was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September 2021 for creating an extremist organization and posing a threat to national security, among other charges.
Kalesnikava was one of 123 political prisoners released under the deal clinched after Washington indicated it was lifting sanctions on Belarusian fertilizer exports.
Other notable prisoners freed included another prominent figure in the 2020 opposition movement, Viktar Babaryka, along with Nobel laureate Ales Byalyatski.
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. It has conducted a series of prisoner releases, although hundreds of people -- many classified as political prisoners -- remain in custody.
"We are glad that so many people have been released, and of course, we are waiting for further steps," Kalesnikava said.
Babaryka, who also spoke at the press conference, also noted that hundreds of political prisoners remain in Belarus, saying "it would be a great betrayal" to forget them.
"I do not regret what I did," the one-time presidential hopeful said.
"We did not lose, we won. We did not receive a prize, but we turned out to be stronger."
Babaryka was sentenced in July 2021 to 14 years in prison on charges of bribe-taking and money laundering that he and his supporters have called political retribution for challenging Lukashenko.
The opposition and Western governments say Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was driven into exile, won the vote, which has not been recognized by the United States, the European Union, and several other countries.
Thousands have been detained since the vote and there have been credible reports of the torture and ill-treatment of detainees by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has authorized several prisoner releases over the past year as he seeks to improve relations with the West after being isolated over his record on human rights and democratic freedoms.
The Belarus strongmen, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1994, is hoping better ties will lead to an easing of Western sanctions, imposed following the country's cooperation with Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"Humanitarian diplomacy saves lives, but we can't forget that the illegitimate regime still terrorizes our people & supports Russia's war," Tsikhanouskaya said in a post on X after the release.
"Our goal remains unchanged: freedom for all political prisoners & a democratic, independent Belarus," she added.
Conversation With Trump
US President Donald Trump, who surprised many by speaking to Lukashenko by phone in August, said in September that he believed the Eastern European nation would be releasing many of the hundreds of political prisoners it was holding.
Human rights group Vyasna, which was founded by Byalyatski says that as of November 30, 1,222 political prisoners were being held in Belarus, including 199 women. It added that since September, the group has designated over 150 new individuals as political prisoners.
"Negotiating the release of individuals in exchange for concessions to an authoritarian regime undermines the fundamental principles of how democracies should engage with such regimes," Aleksandr Morozov, a Russian journalist and researcher at the Boris Nemtsov Academic Center at Charles University in Prague, said in an interview with RFE/RL's Belarusian Service.
"Lukashenko does not free people under pressure; he does so as part of a deal—a trade, a mutually beneficial exchange. It is an exchange, not a unilateral concession," he added.
Unlike a previous release last month that saw 31 prisoners leave Belarus for neighboring Lithuania, the December 13 deal saw all but nine travel to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists on December 14, according to Ukrinform, that prior to the release, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov had reported to him that "the Belarusian side was ready to hand over political prisoners but did not want to do so through other EU countries."
"If Ukraine agreed, they were prepared to carry out the transfer through our territory. I unequivocally supported this initiative and confirmed our readiness to receive the prisoners, because the issue of political prisoners is important: among them are citizens of Ukraine, and it is necessary to bring back both our own citizens and Belarusian political prisoners," Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.
