Belarus wants CIS to stop bloodshed in Ukraine

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to focus on tackling security issues in Ukraine within CIS instead of making European countries solely responsible for them.

The situation in Ukraine undermines all integration foundations among the post-Soviet countries, Xinhua quoted President Lukashenko as saying while opening a meeting of the CIS Council of the Heads of States in Minsk.

"The conflicting parties should agree on the burning issues by themselves, instead of looking for solutions in Berlin or in Milan, " he added.

The parties to the conflict in Ukraine should not simply find common ground, but put an end to the bloodshed and implement the agreements reached in Minsk, the Belarusian leader said.

The CIS is a regional organisation whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the break up of the Soviet Union. It presently comprises Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.