Moscow: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was taken to a hospital in Moscow after meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and is in critical condition, Newsweek reported.
Lukashenko, 68, has been one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies amid Russia's Ukraine invasion.
According to preliminary information, subject to further confirmation, Lukashenko was urgently transported to Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital after his closed-door meeting with Putin. Currently, he remains under medical care there," Belarus's opposition leader Valery Tsepkalo shared on Twitter.
"The best specialists were sent to return him (Lukashenko) from a condition assessed by doctors as critical," he added.
Tsepkalo's message on Telegram further said, "The organized measures to rescue the Belarusian dictator were aimed at averting speculation about the possible involvement of the Kremlin in his poisoning." He said that doctors have warned of a possible recurrence of relapses, as per the news report.
The Belarus president remains under the care of leading specialists to "address his critical condition" and blood purification procedures have been conducted, he added.
Lukashenko's condition has been deemed “non-transportable”, he further informed.
According to Newsweek, rumours about Lukashenko's health have been doing the rounds in the weeks after his appearance at the Victory Day celebration in Moscow's Red Square on May 9.
Earlier this month, the Belarus president left Russia soon after the parade as he skipped lunch with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko looked visibly tired and his right hand was in a bandage, several media reports claimed.
However, Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994, dismissed the rumours and said, "I'm not going to die guys."
According to media reports, Lukashenko also said during a meeting in early May that he had been suffering from an adenovirus, a common cold virus.
Last week, Russia signed a deal with the Lukashenko government to formalise the deployment of tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
The Defence ministers of Russia and Belarus signed the documents defining the procedures for storing Russian nuclear weapons at a special facility on Belarusian territory, the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported.
"During the meeting, documents determining the procedure for keeping Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in a special storage facility on the territory of the Republic of Belarus were signed," the ministry's press service said.
The measures taken by Russia and Belarus "comply with all existing international legal obligations," it stressed. The defence ministers discussed the current military and political situation and issues of military and technical cooperation between the two countries.
With inputs from ANI