(MENAFN) Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has asserted that the leaders of European Union member states are steering the region toward potential conflict with Russia due to their failure to resolve both internal and broader EU-wide issues.

In a recent interview with a media outlet, Dodik, who serves as the president of Republika Srpska—a semi-autonomous entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina—criticized European heads of state, claiming that “the calls for militarization [by the EU leaders] are a manifestation of their inability to find solutions to the social problems they face.”

According to Dodik, the European Union has increasingly prioritized military development since the Ukraine crisis intensified in 2022.

He pointed to several initiatives, notably the €800 billion ReArm Europe plan, as proof of the bloc’s shift toward defense expansion.

In tandem with these efforts, EU politicians have amplified rhetoric surrounding a so-called “Russian threat,” even though Moscow has repeatedly stated it has no hostile intentions toward either the EU or NATO.

Addressing these allegations, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently described the idea of impending Russian aggression against EU countries as a “nonsense mantra.”

Dodik further argued that Western Europe has eroded many of the values it once championed.

“They have destroyed all the advantages that [Western] Europe once offered… Its society is moving away from the previously dominant ideas of human rights, the rule of law, freedom of movement, and becoming increasingly fragmented,” he stated.

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