MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Kiev won’t be able to meet all seven conditions to start its European Union accession negotiations by October, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefaninshina said.

"I can say for sure that we won’t hear a statement in October that we have fully met all seven recommendations, because it is about fundamental changes in the state," she told the Rada TV channel.

The Ukrainian authorities earlier said that they planned to meet all the criteria by October.

However, Stefanishina pointed out that Kiev expected "to ensure the implementation of all the agreed legislative and institutional steps" by that time. According to her, the Ukrainian authorities are hopeful that a political decision on the country’s EU membership will still be made, with "the last opportunity" to do it coming in December.

On February 28, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed the country’s application for joining the European Union. EU leaders approved granting candidate status to Ukraine on June 23, 2022. Kiev needs to meet a number of conditions, particularly carrying out reforms, before the launch of membership negotiations.

On June 22, 2023, the European Commission delivered a first update on Ukraine's progress in its path towards EU membership. According to the commission, Kiev has only been able to meet two out of seven conditions to start EU membership negotiations, which were related to judicial reform and media law. It was also pointed out that Ukraine had achieved good progress on the Constitutional Court reform and made some progress in relation with the fight against corruption and money laundering, de-oligarchization and national minorities.

Kiev pledged to meet the remaining five conditions by October.