The United States has lifted sanctions against the Belarusian airline Belavia. This was stated by US Presidential Representative John Cole at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko , BelTA reports .

"I want to state quite officially that we have lifted sanctions on Belavia. It is official. The decision was made by [US] President Donald] Trump, who said: 'Do it immediately,'" Cole said, Vedomosti reported.

Lukashenko has been flirting with the Trump administration for several months, hoping to improve his relations with the West in order to get some sanctions relief as well as some leverage in his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Belarus has also been put under a heavy sanctions regime and Minsk has become entirely dependent on Moscow.

In June, the high profile pollical prisoner Sergey Tikhanovsky (Siarhei Tsikhanouskiy), husband of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya), was released from prison following a US-brokered pardon after envoy Keith Kellogg met with Lukashenko in Minsk. The release marked the dramatic thawing in US-Belarus relations.