US secures release from Belarus of Minsk-born American, US official says

FILE PHOTO: A view of a screen showing the Belarusian national flag in downtown Minsk, Belarus January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has secured the release from Belarus of an American who was arrested in Moscow and held on coup plot allegations, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Youras Ziankovich, a 47-year-old naturalized American who was born in Minsk and lives in Texas, was released across the border of Belarus into Lithuania and is on his way home, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.