The saddest thing really is that it was all for nought - the EU won't allow any new members for a generation or more, as it tries to complete the scalable political and economic infrastructure it already needs to work with 27 unruly members. Be it Ukraine, Turkey, Serbia, or whichever - nobody is getting in anytime soon, and making sacrifices towards that objective is delusional.
(Un)fortunately there is absolutely no credibility anymore behind any messages released by putins govt, they proved multiple times already that they are saying one thing and doing another.
And how exactly would Putin's pupet government work towards joining the EU? It's not like it's a job for normal citizens to work towards that. This requires a desire and a massive effort of a whole government, to achieve.
