Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Belarus’s autocratic president and Russia’s closest ally, has taken steps to soften his country’s isolation from the West.

The White House said Wednesday that President Trump secured the release of at least three people jailed in Belarus, including an American it has not named and a Belarusian journalist. The development follows the exchange of an American teacher jailed in Russia for a Russian crypto kingpin imprisoned in the U.

Three detainees have been released from detention in Belarus, including one American, the White House said on Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump looks to forge a deal to end the war in Ukraine with Minsk's ally,