MINSK, March 4. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that the West is interested in a prolonged war in Ukraine in order to drown Russia and Belarus in the turmoil. He was speaking at a special ceremony on the occasion of signing into law the decisions adopted in a national referendum on Friday.

"All of them keep shouting about ending war in Ukraine. In public. But they do not need peace at all. What they need there is war, the more of it, the better. In order to drown Russia and us, too, in that war. Their aim is to not let Ukraine make a move," Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian president believes that "everything else the Western officials may be saying is empty talk."

"This rhetoric is addressed only to those who do not understand. But you and me know pretty well what this is all about. We are not going to succumb to their lecturing. We know well the way we should go on living and working," Lukashenko said.