![Alexander Kazakov FILE - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko holds a candle while visiting the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam monastery with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Valaam Island in Ladoga Lake in Russia on July 25, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/08911f71523a4085badd8107577bec18/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x&wm=false)
FILE - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko holds a candle while visiting the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam monastery with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Valaam Island in Ladoga Lake in Russia on July 25, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
![Sergei Grits FILE - Ales Bialiatski, the head of Belarusian Viasna rights group, stands in a defendants' cage during a court session in Minsk, Belarus, on Nov. 2, 2011. As the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War unfolded, the Belarusian opposition and rights activists couldn't hide their disappointment that it didn't include a single Belarusian political prisoner. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/f289029610bb4988bcfe2ac3dc4055ba/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x&wm=false)
FILE - Ales Bialiatski, the head of Belarusian Viasna rights group, stands in a defendants' cage during a court session in Minsk, Belarus, on Nov. 2, 2011. As the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War unfolded, the Belarusian opposition and rights activists couldn't hide their disappointment that it didn't include a single Belarusian political prisoner. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
![Uncredited This photo combination shows Belarus political prisoners, clockwise from top left, Viasna human rights group founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski in , Belarus' opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova, journalist Andrzej Poczobut and opposition activist Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya holding a portrait of her jailed husband Syarhey Tsikhanousky. (AP Photo)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/892874de9c7b474a8f25472f57444ea2/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x&wm=false)
This photo combination shows Belarus political prisoners, clockwise from top left, Viasna human rights group founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski in , Belarus' opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova, journalist Andrzej Poczobut and opposition activist Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya holding a portrait of her jailed husband Syarhey Tsikhanousky. (AP Photo)
![Mindaugas Kulbis FILE - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, center, holds a portrait of her jailed husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, at a protest demanding freedom for political prisoners in front of the Belarus Embassy, in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 8, 2024. Tsikhanouskaya expressed disappointment that last week’s East-West prisoner swap failed to free any Belarusian prisoners. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)](https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/94dc527f22e3484aa18ec12127aaac9f/preview/preview.jpg?s=680x&wm=false)
FILE - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, center, holds a portrait of her jailed husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, at a protest demanding freedom for political prisoners in front of the Belarus Embassy, in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 8, 2024. Tsikhanouskaya expressed disappointment that last week’s East-West prisoner swap failed to free any Belarusian prisoners. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)