Alyaksandr Lukashenka with a rifle. At his side, an armed 15-year-old son

The President of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, did not intend to flee the Palace of Independence, he was staying there with his children – said Natalia Ejsmant, spokeswoman for the head of state on Sunday evening, 23 August.

“As promised, the president did not intend to run anywhere from the Independence Palace, where he is staying with his children,” said Ejsmant. Her statement was published by the Pułierwogo channel run by the press service in the Telegram communicator.

Earlier, a video was published there, in which the president, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a machine in his hand (without a magazine), gets out of the helicopter. In another film, he walks out in front of the Independence Palace, where OMON officers and the Outland military vehicles with special folding covers, used to break up the demonstration, are lined up across the street. “We can deal with them! You are guts!” the president said to the officers.

According to Ejsmant, “the participants of the rally who intended to launch a kind of assault on the palace did not have enough courage”. “They quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction,” she said.

In fact, the participants of the demonstration did come and stood in front of the officers for about an hour. Then they broke up.

Ejsmant confirmed that Lukashenka was accompanied by his 15-year-old son Mikałaj. In the photos you can see him in camouflage and holding a machine gun in his hand.

According to independent media estimates, up to 200,000 people could participate in the meeting and the march on Sunday. people.

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