According to claims, Belarus leader Aleksandr Lukashenka has a terminal illness that does not require immediate surgery.
New and contradictory information has emerged about the health of Belarus’ autocratic leader Aleksandr Lukashenka.
Read more: Lukashenka’s strange illness may have come to Putin like orders – will the Kremlin change Belarus’ leadership?
On Monday afternoon, the Telegram channel Pul Pervogo published a photo that it said was a recent photo of Lukashenka from Monday, May 15. The channel in question is considered an unofficial information channel of Lukashenka’s press service.
Lukashenka was last seen in public on 9 May during the Red Square military parade in Moscow. At that time he appeared unwell and a bandage was visible on his right palm.
In the photo published on Monday, Lukashenka is wearing a green military uniform and is seen standing in a dignified posture. This time attention is drawn to his left palm, which appears to be tied with a bandage.
Belarusian media reported that on Monday, Lukashenka received an updated situational information on Belarus’ air defense.
Later on Monday afternoon a video of Lukashenka was also made public. In the video, Lukashenka speaks in a notably gruff voice about the state of Belarus’ air defense, which he says is on high alert.
According to Lukashenka, Belarus was forced to react immediately after “four planes were shot down” in the Bryansk region in Russia. Lukashenka did not say which party dropped him, but he had to check with military personnel he had on hand when exactly the incident took place.
When Lukashenka was told that the incident happened on Saturday, he said that the increased preparedness was already in effect on the third day. According to publicly available information, Russia could have mistakenly shot down its own planes at that time.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov had time to announce earlier on Monday that the Kremlin had no official information about Lukashenka’s alleged illness.
– I’ll have to orient myself to the official information. No official announcement has been made from Minsk. We are of the opinion that official information should be trusted here, Peskov told Russian media.
However, Peskov’s statement about the lack of official information is not very credible. If anyone has the latest information on Lukashenka’s health and ability to work, it is the Kremlin.
Read more: Lukashenka’s strange illness may have come to Putin like orders – will the Kremlin change Belarus’ leadership?
Official sources in Belarus have previously informed the public about Lukashenka’s “flu”, but the presidential administration, on the other hand, has completely denied claims of illness.
The editor of the Zarqlo website, banned in Belarus, says he called Lukashenka’s press service in the role of a normal concerned citizen to ask how the president was doing. The call took place on Saturday after Lukashenka had been out of the public eye for four days.
– All right, all right. The president has a tight schedule, he works on documentaries, among other things, Lukashenka’s press service assured Zarklo’s “citizen journalist” during the call.
The phrase “working on documentaries” is an old familiar phrase that seems to many Russians and Belarusians to have a very bad connotation. The phrase was used several different times by the Kremlin on President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, when Yeltsin had dropped out of the public eye and was virtually unable to work at all due to alcohol problems or heart problems. were unable to
Aleksandr Lukashenka had a bandage on his right palm under his sleeve at the Red Square Victory Day parade. This has been speculated to indicate that he may have been given IV therapy. Photo: Gavril Grigorov / Lehtikuva
On various Internet news sites, more and more wild claims are being presented all the time about Lukashenka’s state of health. For example, a Telegram channel called Vtshk-Ogpu, which says it does investigative journalism, has been widely cited in Russian media.
According to the channel, Lukashenka initially planned to go public on Tuesday because he wanted to quickly reassure his people. In Belarus, people were only really concerned about Lukashenka’s health status on Sunday, when Lukashenka didn’t even show up for the Belarusian flag, coat of arms and national anthem ceremony, which was described as his “favourite party”. .
According to the Vtshk-Ogpu channel, Lukashenka is suffering from diseases that are incurable, but still he does not require acute surgery.
– Heart problems and problems with the endocrine system, and problems with general well-being, the Telegram channel cites an anonymous source told about Lukashenka’s illness.
Endocrine system refers to, among other things, hormones, and it can also refer to prostate problems. Political researcher Dmitriy Bolkunets said on his Telegram channel that Lukashenka may have had to undergo surgery due to suspected prostate problems.
However, according to the Vtshk-Ogpu channel, Lukashenka has not been operated on.
The channel says that after research it has been concluded that there is no need for surgery as of now.
Belarus’ opposition websites claim that Lukashenka is currently being treated in a hospital and the best doctors have been brought from Moscow to save him. According to the Vtshk-Ogpu channel, Lukashenka is currently being treated by Russia’s best doctors, including at the Bakulev Institute in Moscow, which specializes in heart surgery.
– It should be noted that a significant improvement in health cannot be achieved now, which also means hospital treatment in the future, the channel quotes its unnamed source.
