In an interview with Evgeny Popov, the host of the TV channel “Russia”, on August 19, 2024, Lukashenko revealed the alleged failed storming of the Palace of Independence in Minsk.
“I have flown to the Palace of Independence. I'm already coming out all agitated. I thought they were going to storm the Palace of Independence. The head of the security service met me, I said, ‘Guys, don’t touch them, as soon as they go to storm it, we’ll deal with them. By law!’ Well, then, to prevent this, I went straight, and they started to run. They saw me armed and a few people. There was no need to shoot anymore. They were already running away headlong. For the first time in my life, I saw running headlong,” Lukashenko said.
This story differs from the one that Lukashenko’s spokesperson, Natalya Eismont, published on August 23, 2020, on the Telegram channel “Pul Pervogo”.
“All day, from the very morning, the head of state worked in the situation center at the Palace of Independence, monitoring the situation and circumstances. Including that moment in the late afternoon, when the so-called protesters moved on a kind of storming of the building. At that moment, the head of state was also in the palace,” Eismont described the situation.
The video with the spokesperson's voiceover does not confirm that there was an assault. The people near the Palace were not behaving aggressively.
“However, we can say that the rioters' courage did not last long. Seeing what might happen, these people turned around and literally ran in the opposite direction,” Eismont said.
The spokesperson highlighted the protesters themselves ran away, and Aleksandr Lukashenko had nothing to do with it.
“After that, the president called a helicopter and flew over the city, looking at the so-called rally from the height. Also, of course, controlled the situation. Returning soon to the Palace of Independence, the first thing the president did was thank the guys who were defending the Palace perimeter. He also approached the OMON guys,” the press secretary finished the story.
And only at these words do the shots appear, showing Alexander Lukashenko walking with a rifle without a magazine.
With these words, the audience is shown Alexander Lukashenko walking with a machine gun without a magazine. Eismont said that he had flown over the city by helicopter after the protesters allegedly had run away from the Palace of Independence. That is, Lukashenko landed there not to defend the Palace since there was no one around it anymore.
This is also confirmed by the video from the chest cameras of the OMON officers standing in the cordon. It shows that the road was empty when Lukashenko appeared at the OMON ranks.
