September 11, Pozirk. The United States’ goal is to normalize its relations with Belarus, said John Coale, President Donald Trump’s deputy special envoy to Ukraine. Coale spoke with journalists in Vilnius after Alaksandar Łukašenka released 52 political prisoners.
Asked how difficult the negotiations with Łukašenka were and when the releases could continue, the official said, “We got a total over the last few months of 68. People, and we hope, and we’re in negotiations to get all the number of jumps around, let’s say 1300 people still in there should be gone now. I don’t know what the number exactly.”
“We’ve been talking about it for months now, and we’re getting closer to doing something I think,” he added.
According to Coale, more prisoners could be released within weeks or months.
“Well, I look at it almost like a tennis game. The ball was in our court to do something ’cause they had released 14 a month or so ago. So now we had to do something. So what we did is lifted the sanctions on the airline, which happened today and now, and then, the ball was in their court and they released 52 people today. Now we will come up with something, but I wanna speed that up. I want us have a grand-move negotiations.”
