Alexander Lukashenko conspicuously absent at Victory Day breakfast in Moscow, rushed back to Belarus with ambulance in tow

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, flew back to Minsk shortly after attending the Victory Day parade in Moscow, skipping the formal breakfast for visiting foreign leaders.

The Belarusian media have pointed out that, at the end of the parade, Lukashenko declined to walk to the Unknown Soldier monument together with Vladimir Putin and other visiting heads of state. Instead, Lukashenko was driven to the memorial in an electric cart, although the distance he would have needed to walk was only about 300 meters (1,000 feet).

Another outlet speculates that a bandage visible on Lukashenko’s hand during the parade might have held an IV catheter.

Lukashenko did not attend the breakfast where he was expected together with the other visitors. The Belarusian political scientist Dmitry Bolkunets points out that an ambulance followed Lukashenko’s convoy to the airport as he was leaving Moscow.

Russian and Belarusian authorities have yet to comment on Lukashenko’s absence at breakfast or his early departure.