MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. A member of the Bundestag and foreign policy expert for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Steffen Kotre, believes that Ukraine will not be able to meet the necessary requirements for joining the European Union for at least another 20 years.

"Ukraine will most likely not meet the criteria for EU membership for at least the next 20 years. <…> If the EU continues its course towards confrontation with Russia and, consequently, the transformation of Ukraine into an instrument [in the fight against Russia], it is quite possible that Ukraine, despite the unfulfilled requirements, will be admitted to the EU to the detriment of all member states. But this, in turn, will only accelerate the process of disintegration of the European Union," Kotre told the Izvestia news outlet.

According to the MP, the EU has long ceased to be a community of economic and social cooperation and has become an instrument of unilateral political orientation of European states.

Kotre noted that there is no reason to believe Russia is planning to attack NATO countries. "However, those who are stuck in their own ideology act on the basis of false assumptions and draw wrong conclusions," he added.

The Bundestag member also stated that Germans citizens are aware that sanctions primarily harm them rather than the Russian economy. In his view, the country’s leadership will also understand this but will still pursue a different course of action. "This is not a question of rationality, but of ideology, which, unfortunately, prevailed," Kotre said.