Belarus is categorically in favor of restoring peace in Ukraine and is facilitating this process as much as it can, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said.

"We are categorically in favor of restoring peace in the region and settling the Ukrainian conflict as soon as possible," Makei told journalists in reply to a relevant question in Minsk on Wednesday.

"Our position consists in facilitating the soonest peaceful settlement process as much as we can and helping normalize relations between Ukraine and Russia," he said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko regularly discusses ways to settle the Ukraine conflict with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the matter will be addressed during the Belarusian leader's upcoming visit to Ukraine, he said.

"We presume that both Russia and Ukraine are our closest countries among all former Soviet republics because these are our neighbors and because these are our main trade and economic partners. And, certainly, we categorically cannot accept the situation existing today, this triangle between Belarus, Russia and Ukraine," he said.

The conflict in Ukraine negatively affects Belarus, Makei said.

"Belarus is suffering from this conflict, from the fact that there are certain reciprocal sanctions between Russia and the EU, which is having a negative effect on trade and economic relations," he said.

There is also the danger that illegal weapons could be smuggled to Belarus due to the conflict, he said.

"On the whole, the existing situation affects not only trade-economic relations but also relations between people," Makei said.