In Youcrayne, as in Russia, (and for that matter most ex-Soviet satellite countries), corruption is endemic, entrenched and a big part of the culture. The "con," the "reach-around" is acceptable, if not praiseworthy, in these cultures. I've worked with many Eastern Europeans. Corrupt, scheming and devious to the core. In comparison, the Arabs I worked with for years were trustworty. That says a lot.
This EU/media "membership" kabuki is just a bit of window dressing, shot through with globalist desperation, to soften the blow when the West is soon forced to pull the plug on the disaster it helped create.
Turkey's been on a path to EU membership since 1987. That's 36 years. . . Youcrayne's just as corrupt as Turkey is so my guess is though Youcrayne might be "put on a path" to EU membership it might actually become an EU member sometime in the year 2376, if ever. And let's face it, there's a serious possibility that there won't be an EU to join within a decade, or less. Then, of course, there might not be a Youcrayne in six months the way the war's going.
“Eastern Europeans. Corrupt, scheming and devious to the core”
…and mostly in the EU.
“it won’t be for a decade or more.”
That is not the position of the EU leadership, Scholz or Macron.
“when the West is soon forced to pull the plug”
Forced? That is nonsense.
Russian conventional forces would not last a week against NATO. Just Poland, or just Turkey alone would likely be insurmountable for Russia at this point. Nuclear use would bring the rapid end of Russian society.
The nation’s of the Ukraine Contact Group have over fifty times the GDP of Russia (before the sanctions). The plus ups to their defense budgets to fund the war in Ukraine have been on the order of their annual inflation adjustments to their defense budgets - a few percentage points.
The West already paid the big cost last Winter, to cut off Europe’s dependency on Russian gas. That was Russia’s only economic forcing function, and it is gone.
Italy has a bigger GDP than Russia. So does Texas, or California. The West does not even need to go to a wartime economy to defeat Russian forces (which are already consuming 40% of the Russian Federal budget, which in turn has grown to half the nation’s GDP)
Russia can not even force Ukraine - much less force fifty other countries at the same time. And let’s face it, there’s a serious possibility that there won’t be a Russian Federation within a decade, or less