The carrot of eventual EU membership is being dangled, yes. But "eventual" could be 50 years away. I don't think the EU wants to have to deal with Ukraine's recent problems, such as Crimea, the Donbass War, relations with Russia. But maybe, given a few decades, those problems will reach some kind of resolution.

A lot of EU states never really wanted Cyprus in until the dispute with the North and with Turkey was resolved. But Greece insisted on Cyprus being allowed in before that, and threatened to block enlargement to other member states if it was not, so the rest of the EU didn't have a choice. There is no equivalent country demanding Ukrainian admission. Even if some EU countries might like Ukraine to join, nobody is going to say "Unless you let Ukraine in, we will veto Montenegro/North Macedonia/Serbia/Albania/Kosovo/etc's admission"

And Russia will quite possibly take the idea of Ukrainian EU membership badly – although exactly how Russia reacts depends on what is the state of EU-Russia relations at that point of time. Given that Ukrainian EU membership is decades away, if it ever happens at all, who knows what state EU-Russia relations may be in by then.