Shakhtar showed no mercy at Borisov Arena, embarrassing the Belarusian league champions 7-0 in UEFA Champions League Group H on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian giants blitzed BATE with six first-half goals, while Brazilian forward Luiz Adriano starred with a record-equalling five-goal haul.
Tuesday's forgettable encounter came three weeks after BATE stunned Athletic Bilbao 2-1 for their first Champions League win over Spanish opposition.
"It is hard to say when we saw the real BATE – today or against Athletic," Yermakovich said.
"The reason for our defeat is a lack of quality as the young players cannot play at the same level all the time.
"Of course I didn't expect this kind of game. But we can only blame ourselves as we made too many mistakes and this amount of errors is totally unacceptable at this level – you will be punished.
"It is not the right time to draw major conclusions, however."
