TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday pardoned 28 political prisoners, part of his efforts to improve relations with the West.
Lukashenko's decree marking the country's Independence Day celebrated Friday announced that 28 convicts serving prison terms for “extremist crimes,” a term used by the authorities' in their sweeping crackdown on dissent, were pardoned on “humanitarian" grounds.
Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Lukashenko’s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures fled the country or were imprisoned.
Five years after the mass demonstrations, Lukashenko won a seventh term last year in an election that the opposition called a farce.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners in a series of U.S.-mediated deals that also lifted some U.S. sanctions.
As part of a deal in March that Washington helped broker, Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners, while the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions from two Belarusian state banks and the country’s Finance Ministry, and to remove the top Belarusian potash producers from a sanctions list.
Another deal in April released prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut in a swap with Poland that saw a total of 10 people freed.
However, Belarus still has 864 political prisoners, including 21 journalists, according to the Viasna human rights center.
In a report released earlier this week, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks, warned that despite the release of several hundred political prisoners over the past year, there has been no overall improvement in the human rights situation in the country.
“Sustainable progress requires an end to politically motivated repression and accountability for past violations,” he said.
Belarus opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that while the release of 28 political prisoners will bring relief to their relatives, "we mustn't forget that hundreds of political prisoners remain in Belarusian jails, and all of them must be released.”
In this photo, provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, foreground, visits the BelInterGen enterprise and its subsidiary BelInterGen-Agro in the field of pedigree and dairy livestock farming in the Uzda District of the Minsk Region of Belarus, on Friday, June 19, 2026. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces struck Russia's major Ufa oil refinery for the second time in a week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
Almost daily long-range attacks on Russian oil facilities have created a fuel crisis and heaped political pressure on the Kremlin as its all-out invasion of Ukraine stretches into its fifth year.
The Ufa refinery is one of Russia’s largest producers of lubricants and is located more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on social media.
Ukraine also struck a plant producing missile components in Russia’s Penza region southeast of Moscow, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.
Russian officials did not confirm the strikes, which could not be independently verified. The Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting 179 Ukrainian drones over 16 Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and waters of the Azov and the Black Sea.
Penza regional Gov. Oleg Melnichenko said that Ukrainian drones struck two industrial plants in the city of Penza, injuring two people at one of them. He didn’t name the plants or describe the damage.
The explosions shattered windows in two apartment buildings in Penza, Melnichenko said, while downed drone debris damaged a power line and fell on a building under construction.
Ukraine’s domestically developed and manufactured drones and missiles have been hammering Russian oil facilities, including refineries, terminals, storage depots and pipeline pumping stations, for months.
Many regions of Russia, one of the world’s biggest energy producers, have introduced fuel rationing.
Ukraine has developed new weaponry and in recent months has gained an edge, according to Western officials. Its strikes on supply routes behind the front line have robbed the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield, officials and analysts say.
“Russians now have great problems with delivering infantry to the front line and supplying it,” Ukrainian Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov said Wednesday.
Ukraine has become a provider of military technology sought by countries around the world, especially drones.
With European countries fearing what Moscow’s territorial ambitions might lie beyond Ukraine, leaders have described Kyiv as a bulwark against Russian advances.
Ukraine is “becoming a security provider for the whole of Europe,” Swedish Minister of Defense Paul Jonsson said in Kyiv, where he held talks with Fedorov.
Ukraine signed an agreement on Tuesday for Sweden to provide Kyiv with Gripen fighter jets. They will help Ukraine stop Russian aircraft carrying powerful glide bombs, Fedorov said.
Jonsson said European countries want Ukraine to be integrated into Euro-Atlantic defenses, although Ukraine’s NATO membership has been a contentious issue and likely will be discussed at an alliance summit in Turkey next week.
“The sooner it happens, the better it is for you, the better it is for our security and prosperity as well,” Jonsson told a press conference.
Ukraine also wants to join the European Union, though the process could take years. Zelenskyy arrived Wednesday in Ireland, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
“Ukraine proves every day that it deserves to be an equal partner of our common European home. And we hope that during Ireland’s presidency of the EU Council, we will be able to achieve tangible progress on the path to membership and open all negotiations clusters,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian long-range attacks on Ukraine continued, with three civilians reported killed Wednesday.
A Russian drone struck a bus in the southern Kherson region, killing two people and injuring six others, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said.
A 43-year-old woman was killed and three were injured, including a 35-year-old pregnant woman, when Russia attacked five gas stations in the central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, according to regional authorities.
Russian forces have increasingly targeted Ukrainian gas stations.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, left, and Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson hold a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, Russian TOS-1 Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower rocket launcher fires towards the Ukrainian positions. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
