Warsaw, Poland. Belarus has released Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut in a prisoner exchange at the border with Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday. Poland, in return, freed Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin.
Prisoner exchange details
Tusk said five prisoners were freed for five Belarusian or Russian citizens, including Polish priest Grzegorz Gawel and an unnamed Belarusian who, according to Tusk, cooperated with Polish special services.
Not all names of the released individuals were immediately announced, and it was not immediately clear who, apart from Butyagin, was handed over in exchange.
Poczobut’s detention and release
A Belarusian of Polish origin, Poczobut was arrested in March 2021 and sentenced in 2023 to eight years in prison on charges of inciting ethnic hostility and undermining Belarusian security. Poland has said the charges were unjust and politically motivated and had long sought his release.
“Andrzej Poczobut is free! Welcome to your Polish home, my friend,” Tusk wrote on social media platform X.
Tusk described Poczobut as “unyielding” and quoted their first conversation after his release, saying Poczobut asked, “‘Will I be able to go back there (to Belarus)?’” Tusk said he replied, “‘Only you decide. You are now a free man.’”
Poczobut received the European Union’s 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Other released detainees and broader context
Gawel, a Carmelite priest from Krakow, was detained by Belarusian authorities last year on charges of espionage.
Poland has become a refuge for opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia, Belarus’s main ally, launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
What do you want to know about who was included in the exchange besides those named by Tusk?
