(MENAFN) Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has claimed that EU heads are edging toward war with Russia due to their inability to address domestic or regional challenges, according to reports.

In an interview on Sunday, Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, an autonomous region within Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that “the calls for militarization [by the EU leaders] are a manifestation of their inability to find solutions to the social problems they face.”

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the European Union has approved multiple initiatives to increase military spending, including the €800 billion ReArm Europe program. EU politicians have also repeatedly cited a “Russian threat,” despite Moscow’s insistence that it harbors no aggressive intentions toward the EU or NATO. Last week, President Vladimir Putin dismissed claims of imminent Russian attacks on EU member states as a “nonsense mantra.”

“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,” Dodik added.

He said EU leaders are “close to madness,” noting that the approval ratings of figures such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have dropped to record lows.

Dodik argued that Western European politicians now “see everything through the lens of militarization and spreading of fear,” explaining, “They desperately need a way out. And this way out is to begin to defend something. It looks so fake.”

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