МINSK, April 13, 17:38 /ITAR-TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday voiced support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and said that federalization would eventually destroy the Ukrainian state.

“If you want to preserve Ukraine as a single state, and I want to see Ukraine as an integral monolithic and unified state very much, we should not go ahead with federalization. It’s going to split the country in future and will eventually destroy the Ukrainian state,” Lukashenko said in the weekend “Final Programme” on Russia’s NTV television channel on Sunday. The extracts of Lukashenko’s interview have been published by his press service.

“I do not even want to discuss this subject. I am categorically against federalization because I am for a single and unified Ukraine,” the Belarusian president stressed, noting it was dangerous to push Ukraine towards federalization.

“It is dangerous both for Belarus and Russia and the West. People there (in Ukraine) will never come to terms with that. Just never,” the Belarusian leader explained.