On 23 August, footage emerged showing Lukashenko at the Independence Palace in Minsk. In the first two videos, he is seen walking near a helicopter, wearing a bullet proof vest and holding a machine gun and then walking around the palace grounds. In the latter footage, Lukashenko was heard to say "Leave me alone," and "There is no one left there, right?". His 15-year-old son, Nikolai, was seen with him dressed in military uniform and holding a gun. In a third video, he is seen surveying protestors from a helicopter and is heard saying "How the rats ran away" in an apparent reference to the protesters. In a fourth video, Lukashenko was seen removing the former flag of Belarus from a flower bed, waving at security personnel and in reference to protesters, saying "we will deal with them". On 30 August, the Independence Palace became again a scene of protests. When questioned about the whereabouts of Alexander Lukashenko on this day, his publicity team released an undated photograph of him walking around the grounds of the Independence Palace holding a gun.