U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is planning to travel to Belarus in the coming days to meet President Alexander Lukashenko, according to two people familiar with the matter.

If the trip goes ahead Kellogg would be the most senior American official to visit the country in years. Lukashenko is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine drawing the pair even closer.

The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the Belarusian embassy in Washington declined to comment. Reuters was the first to report on the Trump envoy’s planned trip.

Kellogg’s visit follows one his deputy John Coale paid last month to free an American prisoner. Other State Department officials also traveled to Belarus in February to free an American and two other political prisoners.

Kellogg will follow up on those efforts to free additional European political prisoners held in the country, one of the people familiar with the matter said. The trip could also be a step toward improving the atmosphere for peace talks to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Trump tried to improve relations with Belarus during his first term, dispatching then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the authoritarian nation in 2020 at a moment when Minsk and Moscow ties were under strain. 

But former U.S. President Joe Biden later shifted U.S. policy after election monitors found the 2020 election in Belarus had not been democratic and following Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown on protestors. Washington suspended its embassy operations in Minsk in 2022 shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

More recently the U.S. has looked to restore the relationship with Minsk and bring Belarus at least somewhat closer to Washington’s orbit.

Yurii Stasiuk contributed to this report.