The White House said Wednesday that an American citizen and a Radio Liberty Belarus Service journalist were among three people being held in Minsk.
“We can confirm the safe release of one American and two Belarusians, one of whom worked for Radio Liberty,” – said White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt during a press conference on Wednesday, February 12.
She added that she was not naming names “out of respect for the privacy of these individuals at their request.”
“We do not have any further details regarding their identification, but we can confirm that one American was released today, and this is a great victory after Mark Vogel's return to America last night,” – added Levitt.
As reported by Voice of America, American school teacher Mark Vogel, who was sentenced to nine years in Russia, returned home from Russia on Tuesday after three and a half years in prison.
Radio Liberty reported that a journalist from the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty Andriy Kuznechyk, who was detained on November 25, 2021, and sentenced to six years on June 8, 2022, has been released from a Belarusian prison. He was met in Vilnius by his wife Alesya and children — Matviy, 5, and Yanina, 11.
Kuznechyk was accused of creating an extremist group, something officials did not tell his relatives and colleagues for months.
He, Radio Liberty, U.S. officials, and human rights groups called the charges “politically motivated.”
Human rights groups in Belarus have recognized Kuznechyk as a political prisoner.
“This is a joyful day for Andriy, his wife Alesia, and their two young children. After more than three years of separation, this family is together again, thanks to the president [Donald] Trump,” the president told Radio Liberty.Steven Kapus on February 12, commending the efforts of Secretary of State Marco Rubio “and his team,” as well as the Lithuanian government for their assistance.
The third person released is activist Olena Movshuk, who was detained on August 10, 2020 in Pinsk as part of a criminal case on mass riots following protests against the rigged presidential elections won by Alexander Lukashenko.
The Brest City Court sentenced Movshuk to six years in a general regime colony on April 30, 2021. From the colony, Movshuk told her relatives that she was being subjected to physical and psychological violence, and that she had also been deprived of parental rights to her three children.
The leader of the Belarusian opposition and a candidate for the presidency in the 2020 elections wrote about Movshuk's release on the X network Svitlana Tikhanovskaya.
“Great news! Three hostages of the Belarusian regime have just been released. All of them are now safe in Vilnius. One of the released, activist Olena Movshuk, is in serious condition, we are now taking her to a safe place. But the most important thing is that she is alive and out of this hell,” – Tikhanovskaya wrote, thanking US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mark Rubio and the US State Department “for their joint efforts to make this happen!”
As reported earlier on Wednesday by Voice of America, in exchange for the release of American schoolteacher Mark Vogel the United States released Russian cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in Greece in 2017 and later extradited to the US, where he pleaded guilty in May 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering money.
As the investigation admitted, he laundered 4 billion US dollars obtained as a result of ransomware attacks, identity theft, drug trafficking and other criminal activities.
As reported Voice of America, the day before, US President Donald Trump stated in connection with the release of teacher Vogel from a Russian prison that “the Russians were very nice”, and this is the “beginning of relations” with Russia, which will allow to end its war with Ukraine.