MINSK, June 1. /TASS/. The need to resolve challenging economic problems will prompt former member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States to return to the CIS fold, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

"It will be more difficult to get back in, but they will have to return; economics will compel them to do so," Lukashenko said.

The former republics of the USSR "aren’t needed [by anyone], other than the post-Soviet space that now exists following the break-up of the Soviet Union," the Belarusian leader said. "In actual fact, we speak the same language, we have an integrated economy, we have common markets, industrial cooperation, and so on. Neither our lifetimes nor the lifetimes of our children would be enough time to create such a thing [from scratch]. So, why would you want to tear it all apart? What would be the rationale for breaking up such an integrated market?" Lukashenko asked rhetorically.

He cited Ukraine as an example of the West’s attitude toward the former Soviet republics, with "everybody shutting their doors" to Kiev after the country had "started emptying out its grain storage elevators and shipped it all to Europe."

"What else would Ukraine sell in Western markets? Nothing. The war will end, and they will end up coming to us in any case," Lukashenko said, noting that, "how the situation will evolve for Moldova is still unclear.".