Dozens of political prisoners have been freed from Belarusian prisons as part of a deal between authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and US President Donald Trump. Fifty-two prisoners have been released, including trade union leaders, journalists and activists, but more than 1,000 political prisoners remain in jail. In exchange, the US has said it will relieve some sanctions on Belarusian airline Belavia, allowing it to buy parts for its airlines. The prisoner release came on the eve of joint military exercises involving Belarus and close ally Russia, and after what neighbouring Poland called an unprecedented Russian drone incursion into its airspace. Poland is closing its borders with Belarus because of the Zapad-2025 drills, which last until Tuesday.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says Kyiv has stationed more than 120,000 soldiers along its border with Belarus, the country's state news agency reported, as fighting continues amid Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that Minsk had deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the entire border in response to the Ukrainian deployment, BelTA reported. Kyiv did not immediately respond to the claims. "Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points – in case of war, they would be defence – our military along the entire border," BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Russian state television. The president made it clear that should Ukraine try to enter Belarusian soil, they will be on the offensive, Jabari added.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. A top security official in Belarus claimed Thursday that the country has prevented attempted drone strikes from Lithuania targeting the Belarusian capital and surrounding areas. He did not present evidence for the claim or give any details. He also said that "radicals" in Lithuania and Poland are producing drones to attack Belarus.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The Belarusian government is struggling to thwart an internal guerrilla group that opposes Minsk's assistance to Russia and has engaged in a sabotage campaign since the war in Ukraine kicked off. Earlier this week, opposition activists from the Association of Security Forces of Belarus (BYPOL), a group formed following the 2020 political turmoil in Belarus, attacked a Russian warplane outside the capital city using drones. "Belarusians will not allow the Russians to freely use our territory for the war with Ukraine, and we want to force them to leave," one retired Belarusian serviceman, who joined a group of saboteurs and goes by the name Anton, told The Associated Press in a report Friday.

Belarus has detained several people over what it calls an attempted act of sabotage at a Belarusian airfield, President Alexander Lukashenko was cited as saying. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month that they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military aircraft – a Beriev A-50 surveillance plane – in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk. "To date, more than 20 accomplices who are in Belarus have been detained. The rest are hiding," said Lukashenko, a key Kremlin ally, according to state news agency Belta. He identified the presumed main culprit as a dual national of Ukraine and Russia.

Cyber-activists opposed to the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, say they have penetrated the state-run railway's computer system and threatened to paralyse trains moving Russian troops and artillery to the country for a potential attack on Ukraine. Their goals include freeing political prisoners, removing Russian soldiers from Belarus, and preventing Belarusians from "dying for this meaningless war", a person involved in the attack told the Guardian. A member of the "Cyberpartisans" said the hacktivist group had so far encrypted or destroyed internal databases that the Belarusian railways use to control traffic, customs and stations, an action that could cause delays to commercial and non-commercial trains and "indirectly affect Russia troops movement". They had so far avoided taking more drastic steps to paralyse trains by downing the signalling and emergency control systems, but said they "might do that in the future if we're confident innocent people won't get injured as a result". The group has demanded that Belarus cease serving as a staging ground for a buildup of Russian troops and military weaponry, some of it just miles from the Ukrainian border.