MINSK, May 18. /TASS/. The West is escalating tensions and openly acknowledges that it is preparing for war, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) meeting.

"Despite the rapid decline in living standards and deteriorating economic prospects in the European countries, the West is escalating international tensions and politicians openly admit that they are preparing for war," the BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying, "Ukraine remains a central arena of confrontation, the battlefield on our continent."

The Belarusian president was speaking at a meeting of the Council of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

He pointed out that due to the military conflict in Ukraine, all the most important areas of interstate relations - political, economic and humanitarian - have been broken. The president noted that the relevant actions on the part of the West are justified by purported "intervention, aggression" on the part of Russia in Ukraine, but considers such an explanation untenable. "What does the special military operation have to do with it, or what does Finland's accession to NATO have to do with the special military operation? Absolutely nothing. We were waiting for the moment. We decided that this moment has come," Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian head of state does not think the fact that Finland has joined NATO constitutes a serious threat. "I think it won't do much harm to either Russia or Belarus. Whatever decisions politicians make in Finland, people there are intelligent, and they know what war is," the Belarusian leader concluded.