There’s 0 chance a country at war could focus on making the changes required to join
They’ve already been doing that: The judicial governance and media legislation reforms are complete, the rest are in progress.
There’s also 0 chance they get admitted while at war, as that would obligate the EU to mobilize against Russia, which they really don’t want to do.
Quoth Article 42.7 TEU:
If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States.
Commitments and cooperation in this area shall be consistent with commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which, for those States which are members of it, remains the foundation of their collective defence and the forum for its implementation.
…which can very well be read as “as NATO is trying very hard to not get involved with boots on the ground NATO states will stay out of it”. And the non-NATO states aren’t likely to send anything in the first place, being neutral, which means that the “aid and assistance by all the means in their power”, “not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States”, means weapons delivers and shit.
Now, I’m not saying that Ukraine will join before the Russians are kicked out, but it could be made to work.