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Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming live from London.

This is Owen Bennett Jones.

We begin with the news from Belarus that no fewer than 123 political prisoners have been released,

and some of them are the most important opposition figures in the country. So why has this

happened? And what do the released men and women plan to do now? Many have been flown out

of the country. Are they going to become exiled politicians unable to get back to Belarus?

Well, Maria Kalasnikava, who led street protests against her president Lukashenko in 2020,

has spent the last five years in prison.

She has gone to Vilnius.

This is her sister, Tatiana Komich, who's also there.

She looks fine. She looks good. The first thing, actually, she said thank you to the US

administration, President Trump, to Belarus government as well for leading and talking and

having these negotiations. She is very happy to be free.

Well, there are suggestions that these releases were secured by the US

for lifting sanctions on Belarus.

Tatsiana Comich was asked if that was a price worth paying for her sister's release.

I believe that it's a fair price and actually nothing costs human's life, people's lives in prisons.

I understood recently, I would say, during this time, that five years that families of political

prisoners are those actually who are the one, actually, who fight till the end.

Nevertheless, the international situation And our voice is the most

actually valuable here, the most strong here. And so that should be always having attention

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