U.S.
authorities stated Wednesday they had secured the release of 3 hostages who had been detained in Belarus, consisting of an American citizen, in a diplomatic success for President Donald Trumps administration.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt validated the release of the three, consisting of one American and 2 people from Belarus, among whom worked for Radio Liberty.
U.S.
Ambassador to Lithuania Kara McDonald, speaking on CNN from Vilnius, explained the release as a wedding day for team America, for the president, for the secretary of state, including we simply invited them [the detainees] here a few minutes ago.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya hailed the wonderful news in a post on X, thanking Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their joint efforts in making this happen.
Chris Smith, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Eastern European affairs, described a special operation in which he and other U.S.
authorities crossed into the Belarusian frontier [and] entered into Minsk to meet with Belarusian equivalents who brought these three detainees to us.
They were turned over to us, and we brought them back out through Lithuania, he told CNN.The launched American has actually not been identified.The White Houses Leavitt called the U.S.
persons release an impressive victory on the heels of Marc Fogel returning to America last night.
Fogel, an American teacher kept in Russia since 2021, was released Tuesday in a detainee swap with Moscow.One of the persons freed by Minsk is Andrey Kuznechyk, a veteran journalist with Radio Liberty, according to a statement from the broadcaster which is known in Belarus as Radio Svaboda.In a declaration, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Stephen Capus said: This is a jubilant day for Andrey, his partner, and their two young kids.
After more than three years apart, this household is together again thanks to President Trump.
RFE/RL published a video of Kuznechyk hugging his better half, still using a jail uniform.RFE/ RL is a broadcaster funded by the United States Congress, which was established throughout the Cold War to send details behind the Iron Curtain.Kuznechyk was jailed in 2021 and in 2022 sentenced to six years in a difficult labor camp on a charge of taking part in, or organizing an extremist organization, the broadcaster said.On Sunday billionaire Elon Musk, who is spearheading Trumps federal government cost-cutting efforts, called for RFE/RL and another broadcaster moneyed by Congress, the Voice of America, to be shuttered.Tsikhanouskaya composed on X that the other Belarusian resident released, activist Yelena Movshuk, is in a major health condition.
Movshuk was detained in 2020 and in 2021 sentenced to 6 years on a charge of taking part in mass riots.Tsikhanouskayas aide Franak Viachorka composed on Facebook that Movshuk is in a difficult physical and mental condition.
We drove her to a safe place.
On the way she told of all the scaries that she needed to go through, he added.