Claiming that Lukashenko, 68, was “urgently transferred” to the Central Clinical Hospital of Moscow, opposition leader, Valery Tsepkalo in a Saturday Telegram post said that the information his team obtained requires "additional confirmation, the magazine reported.

"The best specialists were sent to return him from a condition assessed by doctors as critical," he said, adding that "organized measures" to rescue Lukashenko aimed to avert speculation that the Kremlin was involved in a possible poisoning. 

Earlier on 24 May, Lukashenko participated in the Eurasian Economic Forum in Moscow, where he announced that the process of transferring Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus was currently underway.

Looking back, Lukashenko has strengthened ties with the Kremlin since Russia launched its “special operation” in Ukraine, offering much needed support to Putin on several occasions.

However, according to the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, Belarus’s close alignment with Russia has gone against the wishes of a majority of Belarusians.

In a March poll; only 18 percent of people said they definitely support Russia’s war in Ukraine, 15 percent stated they somewhat support the war, 30 percent said they definitely don't support the war and 14 percent mostly don't support it with the remaining stating they are not sure.

The survey sampled the urban population and was carried out between March 15 and 27. Chatham acknowledged a "fear factor" could have affected results.