Belarus’ strong-arm leader Alexander Lukashenko has been pictured for the first time with a bandaged hand ending weeks of claims he is sick.

The country’s official news agency reported that Lukashenko, a key Kremlin ally, visited an air force command post in the capital city of Minsk on Monday.

BelTA also released photographs and video of Europe’s longest-serving leader, 68, at the base that it claimed were of him that day.

‘No lengthy reports, please. Let’s take a look at what is going on around our country,’ the Telegram news channel Pul Pervogo, which is close to the president’s office, quoted Lukashenko as telling the military.

The channel also published a watermarked photograph of Lukashenko speaking in front of a military official.

The visit, Pul Pervogo reported, was for the president to hear a ‘report on the organisation and fulfilment’ of the Belarusian Air Defense Force.

Alexander Lukashenko visited the Central Command Post of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces in Minsk, on Monday, state media claimed (Picture: Reuters)

He spoke with air force officials about aircraft being shot down a few days ago (Picture: AP/EPA)

The president asked air force commanders to keep their updates ‘brief’ (Picture: Pul Pervogo/e2w)

He asked air force commanders to keep the update ‘brief’ and said the country has been on high combat alert for three days after aircraft crashed near the Ukrainian border in the Bryansk region.

BelTA said Lukahsneko had been informed about the shot-down aircraft on Saturday.

Lukashenko looked pale, had a bandaged hand and struggled to walk during his last public appearance on May 9.

He attended the Victory Day parade at Victory Square in Moscow, Russia, but did not deliver a speech; Belarusian defence minister Viktor Khrenin did instead.

Lukashenko skipped lunch with Russian president Vladimir Putin, state media reported, as he flew back to Minsk earlier than scheduled that day.

He was then seen laying flowers in Minsk, about 450 miles west of Moscow, as the nation celebrated the Soviet Union’s World War Two victory over Germany.

Lukashenko’s last public appearances was at the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9 (Picture: AFP)

The autocrat struggled to walk and flew back to Minsk early, missing lunch with Vladimir Putin (Picture: RIA_Kremlinpool / EAST2WEST NEWS)

While Belarusian media usually posts brown-nosing photographs and coverage of the president almost daily, the wires have been silent since last Tuesday.

BelTA instead published old photos and film clips of him.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, missed a major state celebration on Sunday.

He was due to speak at the annual National Flag, Emblem and Anthem Day but his prime minister, Roman Golovchenko, spoke on his behalf instead.

Reporting the news, BelTA gave no reason why the president wasn’t able to make the event, nor did it comment on his five-day-long absence from public view.

But the opposition news outlet Euroradio on Telegram had an answer: Lukashenko had been taken by motorcade to Minsk the day before.

Belarus, a former Soviet republic, is a close ally of Russia (Picture: Getty Images)

The vanishing act ignited wild rumours about Lukashenko’s flailing health in much the same way as it has done for years for the similarly secretive leader, Putin.

Though Lukashenko’s office never publicly commented on the speculation, several Russian state news outlets reported on him being ‘unwell’.

Russian media rarely if at all reports on the health of Russian or ally leaders.

Podyem quoted Konstantin Zatulin, a senior member of the Russian lower house of Parliament the Duma that works closely with Belarus, as knowing what Lukahensko is ill with.

‘There’s nothing so supernatural there, it’s not Covid. A person just got sick,’ he said, according to a Podyem Telegraph post on Sunday.

‘Despite the fact that the person fell ill, he considered it his duty to come to Moscow, and then in the evening of the same day he held events in Minsk.

‘Probably needs some rest, that’s all.’

According to Tass, a Russian state news agency, the Kremlin has called on media outlets to use ‘official information about Lukashenko’s health’.

Even the usually tight-lipped Russian state media reported on Lukashenko’s apparent illness (Picture: Getty Images Europe)

‘One should rely on official reports,’ Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday.

‘There have been no such official reports from Minsk so far. We believe that it is very important to be guided by official information.’

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled opposition leader of Belarus, struck a different tone.

‘There are many rumours about the dictator Lukashenka’s health,’ she tweeted yesterday.

‘For us, it means only one thing: we should be well prepared for every scenario.

‘To turn Belarus on the path to democracy and to prevent Russia from interfering. We need the international community to be proactive and fast.’

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The photos were released by state media.