"You will suffer with me for a very long time." Lukashenko explained his week-long absence from public view with "adenovirus"

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had not appeared in public for several days because he had adenovirus .

"If anyone thinks that I am going to die, calm down. Calm down. This is nothing more than idle talk in messengers and Telegram channels. Adenovirus or whatever it was? Adenovirus," Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko said that usually adenovirus infection “is treated in three days,” but he was unable to undergo treatment due to his busy schedule: “Now to Moscow, now to Leningrad, now to clean-up days, now to Grodno you dragged me to the square to hug these girls, now to Gomel to [the head of the region Ivan] Krupko – all this has accumulated.”

Lukashenko noted that he “does not intend” to die. “You will suffer with me for a very long time,” he said.

• Lukashenko did not appear in public from May 9 to 15. On Victory Day, he attended the parade in Moscow and the flower-laying ceremony in Minsk, but missed other protocol events. On May 14, he did not appear at the celebration of the Day of the Flag, Coat of Arms, and Anthem of Belarus. The largest independent Belarusian publication, Zerkalo, described the situation as “anomalous.”