Belarus is ready to take all Ukrainians who want to leave Ukraine and also welcomes those who have fled Ukraine due to the current crisis, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday.

"The Ukrainian people are asking us for shelter. We need to think about that. Perhaps, we will have to take in some of our brothers and sisters and we will do that if necessary," Lukashenko said at a meeting with the workers of the Slutsk Belts factory.

He also accused the Ukrainian authorities of raising prices at home, making it impossible for people to live.

"It would be better if things over there were calm and peaceful for these good people to live a calm life there," the president said.

The Ukrainian embassy in Moscow said on Friday that Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus Mykhailo Yezhel has returned to Minsk after consultations in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

On March 24, Ukraine recalled ambassador Yezhel back and sent a diplomatic note to Belarus to protest against remarks by Lukashenko saying that Belarus accepted that Crimea was de-facto a part of Russia.

Minsk said that Belarus was not going to recall its ambassador from Ukraine.

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