Belarusian authorities have released photographs and video of Alexander Lukashenko, attempting to put an end to a week of speculation about the authoritarian leader’s health.
The footage showed Lukashenko visiting an army control point, but the ruler’s heavily bandaged arm and hoarse, exhausted voice appeared to confirm rumours that he has been in poor health.
Lukashenko had not been seen in public since last Tuesday, when he attended a military parade in Moscow. Rumours circulated that he had been admitted to hospital on his return to Minsk.
The opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country after a ruthless crackdown on opponents in 2020, told her supporters on Monday to be “well prepared for every scenario”.
Shortly after, a Telegram channel linked to Lukashenko’s administration released a photograph of the Belarusian leader, apparently visiting a military command centre, dressed in military fatigues and with his left arm heavily bandaged. Later, the channel released video footage of Lukashenko, apparently on the same visit, holding a meeting about the security situation in the country.
“As I understand, the situation is not critical, but nevertheless worrying,” he said, speaking with difficulty in a meeting with generals.
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. A former collective farm manager, he has often been referred to as “the last dictator in Europe” and his regime took an even more repressive turn after mass protests in 2020.
Tsikhanouskaya ran against Lukashenko in elections that year that were widely seen as rigged. Her husband had been barred from standing in the election and jailed. After the vote, Lukashenko’s security forces eventually crushed the huge protest movements, with widespread arrests, violence, and many opposition-minded Belarusians leaving the country.
“There are many rumours about the dictator Lukashenko’s health,” Tsikhanouskaya tweeted to supporters on Monday. “For us, it means only one thing: we should be well prepared for every scenario. To turn Belarus on the path to democracy and to prevent Russia from interfering. We need the international community to be proactive and fast.”
Lukashenko and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have often had a strained relationship, but the Belarusian leader has aided Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, allowing his country’s territory to be used as a base for launching attacks. He is now Moscow’s closest ally in Europe, and the Kremlin will be watching his health closely.
Before Monday’s footage emerged, Lukashenko was last seen in public on 9 May, when he was one of the few international leaders to travel to Moscow to view the annual parade marking Victory Day.
Lukashenko looked unsteady on his feet in the footage and had a bandage on his right hand. He missed a lunch hosted by Putin. On Sunday, he missed a ceremony in Minsk, amid rumours that he had been admitted to hospital. Flight tracking data showed that a Russian government plane flew in and out of Minsk over the weekend, but it was not clear who was on board, or whether the mission was related to Lukashenko’s health.
During his reappearance on Monday, Lukashenko also managed to inadvertently confirm the loss of four aircraft by Russia’s military on Saturday, according to quotes attributed to him by his press service. The Belarusian leader referred to “the events near us – I mean in the Bryansk region, when four aircraft were shot down”.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant and several Russian military bloggers reported over the weekend that two Russian fighter jets and two helicopters had been shot down in the Bryansk oblast, apparently as they were about to launch a bombing raid across the border with Ukraine.
Russian authorities have only confirmed that one jet and one helicopter had been lost, citing a crash and engine fire respectively. Ukrainian authorities have not claimed responsibility for the attack inside Russia, but an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, described it as “instant karma”.
