Lukashenko admits to health struggles amid intense public schedule

Speaking on stage during the event "Alexandria invites friends" in the Mogilev region, Lukashenko confessed on Sunday that his schedule for July is very tight and that he is going through "difficult days."

“We have many mass events. The hardest part is when there are many people, and everyone, looking at you, expects something – one curses, another thanks, the third – something else. This enormous number of people greatly affects a person – especially during events like the Independence Day parade, which we celebrate on July 3rd, and other ceremonies. In addition, there is the extra burden related to Kazakhstan, Astana (the summit venue of the SCO), which is about 2,500 miles away. As I said before, these are really difficult days," Alexander Lukashenko told an independent Belarusian portal Zerkalo.io

Lukashenko hopes that in his hometown he will be able to "recover quickly."

Rumors about Lukashenko's poor health have been circulating in the media for a long time. Any situation in which the Belarusian autocrat looks tired or weak becomes a reason to speculate about his health.

This time, reports from the Russian independent television channel Dozhd triggered a new wave of speculation. One of its hosts, Mikhail Fishman, citing his anonymous sources, reported that Lukashenko fainted during the visit to Astana, where the SCO summit was held, and his health "began to deteriorate in front of the participants."

According to Fishman, the next day, Lukashenko looked "pale, his face was sweaty, and he spoke uncertainly."

According to another source provided by Mikhail Fishman, "Lukashenko is indeed seriously ill and is coping very poorly with it."