Lukashenko refused to walk in Moscow and missed breakfast with Putin

Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko did not participate in the working breakfast in the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin, which was held by the President of Russia for the CIS leaders who came to Moscow for Victory Day. Belarusian journalists drew attention to this. Also, as the Belarusian Service of Radio Liberty writes, Lukashenko, instead of walking a few hundred meters from the tribune on Red Square to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden together with Vladimir Putin and other leaders, covered this path by car.

Lukashenko’s appearance on the podium of the parade was “unusually sad”, and rumors began to spread on the sidelines that he had fallen ill, the Belarusian service “Svobody” reports. Also, as reported, his right hand was bandaged. There are no official details about his health.

On May 9, seven leaders of the CIS countries came to Moscow for the parade – except for Lukashenko, the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the prime minister of Armenia. It became known about their arrival only the day before. They did not make any joint statements. In his speech at the parade, Putin thanked the leaders who came to Moscow.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine issued a statement, calling the participation of the leaders of a number of countries in the May 9 events in Moscow “an immoral and unfriendly step towards Ukraine.” “The peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus made an invaluable contribution to the victory over Nazism 78 years ago. They do not deserve to be used by the Kremlin to participate in a false representation,” the statement said.

None of the countries whose leaders attended the parade – even Belarus – officially recognized the Russian annexation of Ukrainian territories. At the same time, they did not condemn the actions of Russia and, as a rule, refrain from voting in the UN on issues related to the war in Ukraine.