Some European Union states are telling Kyiv that Ukraine’s path to membership could take between 10 and 20 years. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka, who noted that such a position has been voiced in particular by Germany, as well as Hungary, Italy and Poland.
According to him, the argument in European capitals centers on the need for a prolonged period of trust after reforms are carried out. “Countries like Germany say: look, because this is extremely important for us, we need trust. So you will carry out your reforms, and we will need, say, 20 years for you to ‘settle,’ so that we can make sure everything works and so on. It’s not because we don’t want to accept you—we simply need trust.
And we say: look, geopolitical circumstances, Russia’s aggression, the war and the need for Europe’s integration do not give us those 20 years. Perhaps I am exaggerating with those 20 years—let it be 10 years—but for us that is an eternity,” Kachka said.