A high-profile prisoner swap freed Andrzej Pochobut, prompting cautious optimism in Warsaw. Further negotiations and concrete guarantees will determine whether the release leads to lasting improvements.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski expressed hope that the release of journalist Andrzej Pochobut would help reboot Polish-Belarusian relations. According to him, this was the topic of a press conference on April 28, which PAP transmitted from Warsaw. He also noted that the initiative in this matter belongs to the de facto head of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
I do not want to make empty promises, for such “false dawns” have happened before
– Radosław Sikorski
According to the head of Poland’s MFA, past episodes of the “thaw” in bilateral relations showed that in Belarus political prisoners were sometimes released, but the current situation requires a new basis for trust and mutual obligations.
The Release of Pochobut as a Signal in the Bilateral Dialogue
Sikorski stressed that Pochobut’s release after 1,860 days in detention in Belarus serves as an example of a strong Polish-American alliance:
«This day would not have been possible without President Donald Trump, his decision and his special envoy, Mr. Kaul, as well as the entire Department of State team»
– Radosław Sikorski
He also thanked the Polish intelligence services and law enforcement agencies, which, in intergovernmental coordination with Polish and American structures, made this exchange possible and the subsequent actions regarding the detained individuals.
The U.S. president’s special envoy John Kaul stated that in two to three weeks he would visit Belarus again, underscoring the role of Western institutions in the process of rapproachement between the two countries.
On April 28, five political prisoners were released during an exchange of those detained among Minsk, Poland, and Moldova. Among them was the Belarusian-Polish journalist Andrzej Pochobut.
Pochobut was detained on March 25, 2021, in Grodno. In February 2023 he was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in a reinforced regime on charges of “inciting hostility” and “calls for sanctions.” The human rights community recognized him as a political prisoner. In 2025 he became a laureate of the European Parliament’s Andrei Sakharov Prize “For Freedom of Thought”.
Before his imprisonment, Pochobut actively collaborated with the Polish publication Gazeta Wyborcza and covered events in Belarus, and his fate in recent years has been one of the key points of tension in Minsk-Warsaw relations.
Changes in Pochobut’s case may influence the political dialogue between Poland and Belarus, but further steps will require constructive cooperation and concrete commitments from both sides to ensure lasting normalization of relations between the two countries.
In the future, the development of the bilateral dialogue will depend on mutual openness, the ability to negotiate, and respect for human rights, in order to create a stable foundation for stable relations between Poland and Belarus.