Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration secured the release of the 47th unjustly detained American citizen since taking office 100 days ago.
Youras Ziankovich was released without a prisoner swap this week and brought to neighboring Lithuania by a team of American officials, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Chris Smith, CNN reported. Ziankovich was detained in Moscow in 2021 and brought to Minsk, Belarus, where he was accused of being involved in a planned United States-backed coup against Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko.
“Thanks to @POTUS‘s leadership, Belarus has released another wrongfully detained U.S. citizen,” Rubio tweeted. “No president has done so much, so quickly, to keep Americans safe abroad.”
The 47 unjustly detained Americans were released from countries including Afghanistan, Russia, and Venezuela through high-level diplomatic efforts, according to Rubio.
“I knew this day would come. It took 1,480 days, but he survived and is on his way home to me and to America,” Ziankovich’s wife, Alena Dzenisavets, said, reported CNN. “I want to thank President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Special Envoy Boehler and the SPEHA staff. I also want to express my appreciation to Rep. Morgan Luttrell and the nonprofits Global Reach and the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation for their help advocating for Youras.”
The Trump administration previously negotiated the release of two other Americans from Belarus, one who wishes to remain anonymous, and Anastasia Nuhfer.
“We have one American citizen, which is a huge win and a response to President Trump’s peace through strength agenda,” Smith said when the unnamed American was released in February. “The Belarusians are responding to this and we are going to keep working until we get all Americans out.”
The release comes after the Trump administration secured the freedom of two Americans from Russia who caught national media attention, including American schoolteacher Marc Fogel in February and Russian-American amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina in April.
Fogel, sentenced to 14 years in 2021 for possessing medical marijuana, was welcomed at the White House upon his return and called Trump “a hero.” Karelina was arrested in 2024 while visiting her grandmother and sentenced to 12 years for treason after donating $51.80 to Razom, an American charity providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
