Fellow wannabe, 0.5 hrs on a c152, residing in ME in an unpopular local state of which its legitimacy is doubted upon by many (I doubt it myself)
Standing in the same square as yourself, my idea is to start the PPL in EU zone, and after getting my bearings aligned with what country in the EU is most inviting (currently EE region looks inviting, but it has its downsides) I would work on a CPL and start working on getting a work permit. Once you have a work permit and get an actual job (don't mind being an expensive Air Uber), work your hours, and at the same time starting checking boxes on your "citizenship to do list" for that country.
Most countries, from what little research I did, require you to live in that country for a minimum time, even with a tempo access as a student or Gaestarbeiter, then there's the language barrier, which
is almost always required for citizenship (but
afaik not for residence permit)