Belarusian leader Oleksandr Lukashenko was absent from the dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin Victory Day, reports Reuters. He would be taken to the airport accompanied by an ambulance, Kyiv Post reports.

Lukashenko, who is close to Putin, looked tired and stood a little unsteadily on his feet, a bandage was visible on his right hand. His appearance has sparked speculation online about his health, although he has otherwise shown no obvious signs of being unwell.

The video showed the 68-year-old chatting with Putin and senior military officials after the annual parade in Red Square before being taken in a car to the nearby Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as Putin walked there with Armenia’s leaders and the five leaders. countries of Central Asia.

He joined others to lay flowers at the Tomb near the Kremlin, about 300 meters from where they had earlier watched a parade marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

In a rare departure from custom, the Belarusian president skipped a state dinner hosted by Putin at the Kremlin, attended by other leaders.

Belarusian authorities have not released a statement about Lukashenka’s health, but he has appeared at only two public events in the past two weeks, and at one of them his voice was hoarse.

Russia used the territory of Belarus as a launching pad for its invasion of their mutual neighbor Ukraine last February, and since then their military cooperation has intensified with joint exercises on Belarusian territory.

But Lukashenko has insisted that Belarus is not taking part in the war and has not sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces in what Putin calls a “special military operation”.

At a Victory Day parade on Tuesday, Putin said that Russia was waging a “holy” fight with the West over Ukraine.