Belarus's authoritarian leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, on May 14 failed to attend events to mark the National Flag, Coat of Arms, and Anthem Day amid rumors of ill-health.
Prime Minister Raman Halouchanka read a speech on Lukashenka's behalf at the events in Minsk.
It is the latest in a series of public events in the past three weeks that Lukashenka has failed to attend, but there has been no official statement on the health of the 68-year-old. An unconfirmed report on May 13 said he was taken to a hospital in Minsk.
Lukashenka attended the May 9 Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, where he looked unwell, and a bandage was visible on his right hand.
A member of the Russian State Duma was quoted by Russian media on May 14 as saying that Lukashenka was ill, but it's nothing out of the ordinary and not COVID.
"Despite the fact that the man fell ill, he considered it his duty to come to Moscow, and then in the evening of the same day he held events in Minsk. He probably needs some rest, that's all," said Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, according to the Russian publication Podyom.
Zatulin told Podyom that he knows what Lukashenka is suffering from but did not reveal the diagnosis.
Lukashenka's press service has not commented specifically about any illness, but said he continues to work "with documents."
News reports on the evening of May 13 said Lukashenka arrived at Republican Clinical Medical Center in Minsk. Roads to the hospital were blocked as his motorcade approached, and security forces stood along the route.
Lukashenka has been in power since 1994. The country's election commission declared him the winner of the 2020 election, but the results were disputed amid the widely held belief that the contest was rigged and that the true winner was opposition politician Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Lukashenka's regime brutally cracked down on mass protests against the outcome in the months that followed, jailing opposition figures and driving others into exile.
The authoritarian leader subsequently backed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's war against Ukraine, allowing Russian forces to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for Russia's intervention.