MINSK, December 3. /TASS/. Belarus supports Russia in the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Wednesday at a meeting on measures taken to lift the ban on Belarusian exports to Russia and transit of the goods from the sanctions list.

“Russia does not regard itself a side in the Ukrainian conflict and calls on Ukrainian authorities to conduct dialogue in this case with the leadership of (the self-proclaimed) Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics,” he said. According to the president, dialogue is of prime importance in this situation. “I absolutely support Russia’s position that it is necessary to stop the killing of innocent children and the aged,” Lukashenko said. It is inadmissible to shell the localities where the people live, he added.

Lukashenko said that the EU countries and the United States blamed Russia for the Ukrainian events and put forward a number of conditions “to which Russians reacted accordingly.”

In response to the Russian position on this issue, the West imposed on Russia a number of unacceptable economic and financial sanctions, Lukashenko said. “And Russia made a decision to retaliate these sanctions,” he said.

Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary watchdog on November 26 imposed a ban on the imports of meat and dairy products of eight Belarusian companies, saying these companies’ products failed to meet Russian requirements.