Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is positioning himself as a regional “problem solver” by promising to halt balloon incursions into Lithuania, freeing prisoners and securing a partial sanctions reprieve from the United States, even as EU and NATO states still see him as a close Putin ally using hybrid tactics. This comes after talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and US special envoy John Coale, easing a crisis that had repeatedly shut Vilnius airport and been branded a “hybrid attack” by the Lithuanian government and EU leaders.