BUDAPEST, December 21. /TASS/. Ukraine is many years away from joining the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a news conference recapping the results of the past year.

"The distance between Ukraine and the European Union is the same as between Mako and Jerusalem," he said, referring to an old Hungarian adage that refers to a small town from where, as legend has it, a certain knight traveled to the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. "To put it another way, it will take many, many years to cover that distance."

He conceded that he did not understand why anyone would start talks with Ukraine on EU accession now that it is completely unprepared for the move.

"It seems unrealistic," the Hungarian prime minister said. "It would be much better to first establish some kind of strategic-partnership relations between the EU and Ukraine."

Orban said he believes that talks about Ukraine's accession to the EU are "a nice political gesture, but it will not help Ukrainians." He said that at the summit in Brussels on December 14-15, he opposed the start of negotiations on the country's accession to the EU and spent eight hours making his case before leaders of other countries. He admitted that he was able to change their minds and "they had strong arguments."

Orban reaffirmed that he remains convinced that he’s right. The prime minister also said that Ukraine can’t be admitted to the EU unless the Hungarian parliament backs the move.