Archive | 2026/03/29

Bartosz T. Wieliński: Łukaszenka żąda za uwolnienie Andrzeja Poczobuta wysokiej ceny

Akcja solidarności z więzionym w kolonii karnej Andrzejem Poczobutem. Fot. PAP/Artur Reszko


Bartosz T. Wieliński: Łukaszenka żąda za uwolnienie Andrzeja Poczobuta wysokiej ceny

Józef Krzyk (PAP)


25 marca mija pięć lat od osadzenia Andrzeja Poczobuta – dziennikarza współpracującego z „Gazetą Wyborczą” i działacza polskiej mniejszości na Białorusi w kolonii karnej. – Stał się dla Aleksandra Łukaszenki czymś w rodzaju karty przetargowej – mówi w rozmowie z PAP Bartosz T. Wieliński, zastępca redaktora naczelnego „GW” i przyjaciel Poczobuta.

PAP: Od września 2025 r. władze Białorusi uwolniły już trzy grupy więźniów politycznych, ale w żadnej z nich nie było przetrzymywanego od pięciu lat w kolonii karnej Andrzeja Poczobuta. Dlaczego?

Bartosz Wieliński: Nie doszło do tego z zasadniczego powodu. Andrzej Poczobut stał się dla Alaksandra Łukaszenki czymś w rodzaju karty przetargowej. Gotów byłby uwolnić polskiego dziennikarza – naszego kolegę – ale w zamian za spełnienie różnych warunków. Rzecz w tym, że żąda bardzo wygórowanej ceny. Z wypowiedzi samego Łukaszenki wynika, że chciałby wymienić Andrzeja Poczobuta za złapanych przez polskie służby swoich agentów lub za tych, którzy wpadli w innych państwach NATO. W negocjacje zaangażowali się Amerykanie i między innymi z tego powodu na wolność wyszło wielu innych więźniów mińskiego reżimu. O uwolnieniu Andrzeja Poczobuta Łukaszenka chciałby jednak – tak przynajmniej deklarował – rozmawiać wprost ze stroną polską. Być może właśnie dlatego amerykańskie pośrednictwo nie było dotąd skuteczne. Łukaszenka najwyraźniej uznał, że więcej korzyści odniesie w rozmowach z Warszawą.

PAP: A na czym Łukaszence zależy?

B.W. Trudno to jednoznacznie określić, bo na życzenia Łukaszenki składają zarówno konkretne cele polityczne, jak i spełnienie żądań, które wynikają jedynie z jego urojeń. Łukaszenka uroił sobie na przykład, że w Polsce jest szkolony jakiś legion, który miałby go siłą odsunąć od władzy. Domaga się też zaprzestania działalności w Polsce grup, które miałyby doprowadzić do wybuchu kolejnych protestów w Białorusi. Nie da się o takich sprawach poważnie rozmawiać. Z drugiej strony Łukaszence zależało też na otwarciu czasowo zamkniętych przejść na granicy z Polską. Ten warunek został już jednak przez polską stronę spełniony, a niestety nie poszły w ślad za tym żadne kroki z ich strony gdy idzie o Andrzeja Poczobuta.

PAP: Czy ktoś może wpłynąć na decyzję Łukaszenki?

B.W. Tylko Władimir Putin, ale to nie jest osoba, na pośrednictwo której ktokolwiek racjonalnie myślący w Polsce chciałby liczyć.

PAP: A Stany Zjednoczone?

B.W. Łukaszenka był rozczarowany Amerykanami. Spodziewał się więcej od Donalda Trumpa. Domaga się pełnej legitymizacji jego reżimu. Po sfałszowanych przez niego wyborach w 2020 roku w demokratycznym świecie nie jest traktowany jako praworządny prezydent. W rezultacie ograniczone już wcześniej kontakty z Białorusią po 2020 roku jeszcze bardziej zostały zredukowane. Tymczasem Łukaszence się marzy międzynarodowe uznanie i wizyta w Gabinecie Owalnym – rozmowa z Donaldem Trumpem jak równy z równym. Gdy usłyszałem o tym pół roku temu uznałem, że oszalał, ale teraz okazuje się, że Amerykanie sygnalizują gotowość do organizacji tego spotkania.

Łukaszenka ma ambicje pośredniczyć między Trumpem a Putinem. On pozycjonował się jako ten, przez którego z Zachodu przechodzą sygnały do Rosji. Przykładem takiego nastawienia Łukaszenki są rozmowy mińskie z lat 2014-2015. W stolicy Białorusi podpisano wtedy wielostronne umowy, które miały doprowadzić do rozwiązania konfliktu na Ukrainie. Zanim się okazało, że Putin nie ma zamiaru żadnych umów dotrzymywać, Łukaszenka przedstawiał się jako osoba, która przynosi pokój.

Teraz, od wybuchu pełnoskalowej agresji Rosji na Ukrainę, sytuacja w pewnym stopniu jest podobna. Choć wojska rosyjskie atakują Ukrainę z terytorium Białorusi, to Łukaszenka próbuje się przedstawiać jako bezstronny i neutralny. Liczy, że to jemu – z poparciem administracji amerykańskiej – przypadnie rola gospodarza rozmów kończących wojnę w Ukrainie.Dziwne, że w Waszyngtonie są złudzenia co do faktycznej pozycji Łukaszenki w jego relacjach z Putinem.

PAP: Można odnieść wrażenie, że wsadzając Andrzeja Poczobuta do kolonii karnej Łukaszenka nie starał się nawet o to, żeby zarzuty wobec polskiego dziennikarza brzmiały wiarygodnie. Sąd skazał go za podżeganie do nienawiści narodowej i gloryfikowanie nazizmu. 

B.W. W gruncie rzeczy te zarzuty można odebrać jako element polityki zastraszania własnego społeczeństwa, jaką od dawna prowadzi Łukaszenka. To swego rodzaju komunikat do wszystkich niepokornych i wątpiących w nieomylność reżimu: możemy uwięzić każdego i nie potrzebujemy nawet wiarygodnego pretekstu.

PAP: Co wiadomo o warunkach, w jakich obecnie przebywa Andrzej Poczobut?

B.W. Jest całkowicie odcięty od świata. Nawet jego żonie uniemożliwiono kontaktowanie się z nim. Kolonia karna, w której przebywa, przypomina to co się działo w sowieckim gułagu. Ludzi niszczy się tam pracą ponad siły, pozbawieniem opieki medycznej, kompletną izolacją, a także osadzaniem pod byle pretekstem w karcerze.

Rozmawiał Józef Krzyk (PAP)


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Disarming Hamas Must Remain Trump’s Top Priority in Gaza


Disarming Hamas Must Remain Trump’s Top Priority in Gaza

Con Coughlin


  • Several members of Trump’s Board of Peace, especially Turkey and Pakistan, have expressed serious concerns about, if not outright hostility to, disarming Hamas, a factor that many believe has resulted in talks on the disarmament of the terror group being put on hold.
  • Mladenov’s optimism about persuading Hamas to disarm, however, was not shared by the terrorist organisation itself. A Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that, while the terrorist group had received a written document, it denounced the initiative as a “take it or leave it” offer. He said Hamas would first wait to see the outcome of the Iran war before responding.
  • Hamas’s refusal to provide a clear-cut commitment to meeting the disarmament demand, moreover, comes at a time when it continues to consolidate its hold over Gaza, especially since the start of the Iran war. In an attempt to control Gaza’s civilian population, Hamas has been enforcing price controls and managing the distribution of goods arriving from outside the Strip, moves that suggest it has no intention of relinquishing its grip over Gaza.
  • Trump must not abandon his demand that Hamas fully disarm before going forward with his Gaza peace plan.

US President Donald Trump must not abandon his demand that Hamas fully disarm before going forward with his Gaza peace plan. Pictured: Hamas terrorists in Gaza City on November 2, 2025. (Photo by Omar Al-Qataa/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to bring lasting peace to Gaza risks being completely ruined after suggestions that members of his Board of Peace are not fully committed to disarming Hamas terrorists, a key requirement of the Trump administration’s peace plan.

Prior to the war in Iran, Trump made disarming Hamas his top priority as he sought to implement his ambitious 20-point peace plan for Gaza’s reconstruction. As the president wrote on his Truth Social platform in January in response to Hamas’s continuing prevarication over the disarmament demands, “they can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

Since then, the Trump administration’s focus on disarming Hamas appears to have taken a back seat as the American leader has become preoccupied by the challenges of the war in Iran since launching Operation Epic Fury on February 28.

Despite the fact that Iran for decades has been one of Hamas’s most devoted supporters, providing funds and military equipment for its terrorist infrastructure, the demand for the terror group to disarm has been put on hold for the duration of the conflict, a move many believe could be a first step by some members of the Board of Peace to abandon completely the demand for Hamas to disarm.

Several members of Trump’s Board of Peace, especially Turkey and Pakistan, have expressed serious concerns about, if not outright hostility to, disarming Hamas, a factor that many believe has resulted in talks on the disarmament of the terror group being put on hold.

There are even concerns that Trump’s own envoys involved in negotiations taking place in Cairo to safeguard the existing ceasefire might be tempted to water down the disarmament demands in return for making progress on other areas of the peace plan, such as increasing aid and NGO access to Gaza.

The Gaza ceasefire has been under serious strain since the start of the Iran war, prompting members of the Board of Peace to attend meetings with Hamas representatives in Cairo aimed at easing tensions.

Following the meetings, Israel announced that it would soon reopen the sole crossing for pedestrians between Gaza and Egypt, shut since the air campaign against the Iranian regime began. One official said ​he believed the Israeli announcement was a direct result of the meeting between Hamas and the board.

Trump’s board was represented at the talks with Hamas by Aryeh Lightstone, an American aide to Trump’s special ​envoy Steve Witkoff. A US official said that Lightstone had attended Gaza-related meetings in Cairo in the past several days, without confirming whether he met with the Hamas delegation.

In an attempt to break the impasse over the disarmament issue, mediators meeting in Cairo said in an interview with NPR that they had given Hamas a formal proposal to lay down its weapons. The proposal calls for Hamas and all other terrorist groups in Gaza to hand over all weapons, making an emerging governing authority responsible for all the arms.

The proposal is said to call for a comprehensive framework to ensure the “complete handover” and “full decommissioning” of arms belonging to Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, and that if Hamas accepted the proposal, it would ensure large-scale reconstruction of Gaza.

Nickolay Mladenov, the former UN diplomat charged with implementing Trump’s plan for postwar Gaza, said that the ceasefire’s mediating countries had agreed on a “framework” to see Gaza rebuilt, but that Hamas must be disarmed.

He said executing on the framework “requires one clear choice: full decommissioning by Hamas and every armed group, with no exceptions and no carve-outs.”

Mladenov’s optimism about persuading Hamas to disarm, however, was not shared by the terrorist organisation itself. A Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that, while the terrorist group had received a written document, it denounced the initiative as a “take it or leave it” offer. He said Hamas would first wait to see the outcome of the Iran war before responding.

Hamas’s refusal to provide a clear-cut commitment to meeting the disarmament demand, moreover, comes at a time when it continues to consolidate its hold over Gaza, especially since the start of the Iran war. In an attempt to control Gaza’s civilian population, Hamas has been enforcing price controls and managing the distribution of goods arriving from outside the Strip, moves that suggest it has no intention of relinquishing its grip over Gaza.

Another key factor that could have an important positive bearing on the future of Trump’s Gaza peace plan is that, with the war against Iran in full flow, Washington has received the support of its long-standing Gulf allies, who now find themselves the target of unprovoked Iranian missile attacks.

Trump must not abandon his demand that Hamas fully disarm before going forward with his Gaza peace plan.


Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.


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Ukraine Leverages Drone Defense Expertise to Aid Gulf, Strengthen Strategic Role Amid Iran War


Ukraine Leverages Drone Defense Expertise to Aid Gulf, Strengthen Strategic Role Amid Iran War

Ailin Vilches Arguello


Fire ignited at the impact site following an Iranian missile strike, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in central Israel, March 13, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz

As the US-Israeli war with Iran reshapes regional security dynamics, Ukraine is leveraging its battlefield-honed drone defense expertise to assist US allies in the Gulf, potentially strengthening its diplomatic standing and shifting the balance of power, experts say.

Earlier this week, a team of around 200 Ukrainian military experts arrived in the Middle East to provide both “expertise” and “practical support” in countering Iranian drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that specialized units have already been deployed in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, with additional personnel en route to Kuwait, as Kyiv strengthens coordination with countries across the region.

Since the start of the war last month, Ukraine has actively offered its technology and personnel to Middle Eastern partners to assist the United States and its allies in countering Iranian drones, positioning itself as a key strategic player amid conflict and shifting diplomatic alliances.

Zelenskyy stressed that he had instructed government officials “to present options for assisting the relevant countries” in a way that safeguards Ukraine’s own critical defense needs amid the ongoing war with Russia and its relentless missile and drone attacks.

“Ukrainian experts will operate on-site, and teams are already coordinating these efforts,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Among a delegation of military, intelligence, and defense officials traveling to the Gulf was National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, as the group worked to finalize what was described as “concrete agreements.”

“Ukraine has the greatest experience in the world in countering attack drones,” Zelensky said. “Without our experience, it will be very difficult for the Gulf region, the entire Middle East, and partners in Europe and America to build strong protection.”

“We are ready to help those who help us,” the Ukrainian leader continued. “The regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred and that is why they are brothers in weapons. And we want regimes built on hatred, to never, never win in anything. And we want no such regime to threaten Europe or our partners.”

According to John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, DC-based think tank, Ukraine has “unmatched experience” in developing and scaling cost-effective systems that can detect and neutralize the one-way attack drones widely used by Iran.

The Iranian regime has been supplying Russia with drones throughout the war in Ukraine, and Moscow has been reportedly supplying Tehran with intelligence, satellite imagery, and drone technology to target US forces.

“With Russia working to help Iran kill American servicemembers, that’s all the more reason for the United States and its Middle East allies to take advantage of Ukraine’s hard-won expertise,” Hardie told The Algemeiner

“Replicating Ukrainian solutions at scale won’t happen overnight, but Ukrainian deployments to the Middle East could offer a taste of some of the Ukrainian technology, namely interceptor drone systems,” he continued. 

Hardie argued that this expertise could help Ukraine “cultivate closer security cooperation” with the United States and its Arab allies, while also opening opportunities for Kyiv to expand its defense industry exports and strengthen its role as a key security partner in the region.

When the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran struck back quickly, firing missiles and long‑range drones at military and civilian targets in neighboring countries — repeatedly hitting infrastructure and population centers even as it claimed to be focusing solely on US military assets.

In just the first few days of the conflict, Iran launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 unmanned aerial systems (UAS) — remotely operated or autonomous aircraft commonly used for surveillance and strike missions.

Even though the regime’s ballistic missile launches have dropped sharply since then due to US and Israeli strikes on its launchers and broader missile program, its drone attacks are, while also down significantly, proving more difficult to stop with air defenses, threatening key military targets as well as civilian areas.

Some regional countries struggle to defend against Iranian drones because these low-cost systems consistently evade fighter jets and conventional air defenses. They have struck a wide range of targets — from diplomatic and economic sites to residential areas — including Dubai International Airport and Saudi oil facilities.

According to Jason Campbell, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank, Ukraine has revolutionized counter-drone warfare over the past three years through cost-effective, easily reproducible technologies and adaptive battlefield tactics.

“The Gulf states have invested heavily in high-end and highly capable missile defenses, but the Iran war has demonstrated the need for solutions that can better confront their comparatively inexpensive and easily reproducible Shahed drones,” Campbell told The Algemeiner, referring to the Iranian-made drones. 

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Islamist regime in Iran began supplying drones to Moscow, providing a relatively inexpensive way to expand its long-range strike capabilities, which Russia later advanced by producing modified variants domestically and in greater quantities.

Over more than four years of war, Ukraine has dramatically improved its counter-drone strategy, increasingly relying on interceptor drones — low-cost unmanned aerial systems that detect, track, and destroy incoming drones identified by radar — offering a highly effective and economically sustainable alternative to traditional air defenses.

“I would say that this capability has already elevated Ukraine’s (and Ukrainian companies’) status throughout the Gulf,” Campbell told The Algemeiner

According to multiple media reports, Saudi Arabia is planning a major contract with Ukrainian companies to purchase interceptor drones.

Zelenskyy has also suggested that Ukraine could “exchange” interceptor drones for Patriot air defense missiles, a US-made system designed to detect, track, and intercept incoming ballistic missiles, aircraft, and drones.

“Russia probably is not very excited about the prospect of Ukraine bolstering its air defenses and demonstrating its utility to an array of deep-pocketed clients,” Campbell explained.

“This is a win for US interests and could provide more impetus behind efforts to provide necessary assistance to help Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia,” he continued. “One thing to watch, however, will be the near-term availability of higher end air defenses which remain in high demand now in multiple theaters.”


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