President Donald Trump sent envoy Keith Kellogg to Belarus for talks with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko on Saturday, while Russia and Ukraine continue to fight.

Despite Trump’s peace efforts, the conflict in Ukraine has not come to an end. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which have been mediated at times by the U.S., have been largely fruitless outside of prisoner exchanges.

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Belarus is Russia’s chief ally in the conflict. A large part of the western world, including the U.S., had isolated Russia and Belarus following the war’s beginning in 2022. The Biden administration had punished Belarus with sanctions and isolation, but the Trump administration’s willingness to send an envoy took a turn away from that approach.

Though the sanctions don’t appear to be going away for Belarus, Kellogg’s visit spurred the release of 14 political prisoners from the country.

“The United States is now strong so we can get these kind of things done,” Kellogg’s deputy John Coale said in a video posted on Telegram.

The prisoners included the husband of exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. He arrived in Lithuania on Saturday.

In a meeting with Lukashenko, Kellogg said the Belarusian leader’s palace “looks a lot like Mar-a-Lago” will all of the gold present across it.

Lukashenko acknowledged the meeting’s publicity, saying, “You have made a lot of noise in the world with your visit.”

“Can’t we have a normal dialogue and talk about our affairs — about relations between Belarus and the United States of America?” he added. 

The United States had once hoped to distance Belarus from their Russian relations during the first Trump administration, but Lukashenko won in a landslide victory in 2020 that has been criticized for being neither free nor fair.

Balazs Jarabik, a former European Union diplomat, told the New York Times that Kellogg’s visit “represents a serious diplomatic upgrade” and recognizes Belarus “as a relevant actor in regional diplomacy.”

“Belarus is no longer just a moral cause — it’s a geopolitical challenge,” Jarabik said before adding that Belarus would like an end to the Ukraine war, which they are involved in, as well.

Kellogg cautioned Lukashenko that conflicts anywhere can sharpen without diplomacy.

“We live in a very dangerous time, when the crises we face can sharply escalate, grow, if we are not wise and fair,” he said.

Lukashenko told Kellogg that “you will be completely safe on the territory of Belarus” and that “there will be no escalation, not only in Belarus but also around us.”

One of the hard lines in the Ukraine-Russia peace talks is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has refused to give up territory in exchange for a deal. The U.S. has pushed at times for them to do so, since the Trump administration began, but they still refuse. Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t appeared to soften his stance on gaining ground in Ukraine, insisting on Friday that Russia and Ukraine were one people, “and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours.”

The U.S. could hope that closer relations with Belarus might leave them with a notch up on the negotiations, but the Belarusian president has made it clear his loyalties remain with Russia.

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Upon the visit of the leader of Russia’s version of America’s FBI on Friday, Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, Lukashenko assured him that Belarus is on their side.

“I want you to understand that in this difficult time, we are with you,” he told Bastrykin.