Colonel-General Andrei Serdyukov, head of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB), says Europe is undergoing a new wave of militarization that is openly directed against Russia. According to him, European countries are actively preparing their territories and infrastructure for war.

He stressed that this buildup is moving at an accelerated pace and framed it as preparation for a direct military confrontation with Russia. Serdyukov pointed out that the presence of coalition troops is being expanded in immediate proximity to the borders of ODKB member states.

In his view, the most tense and potentially explosive situation today is unfolding in Eastern Europe. Serdyukov argued that the main factor driving instability in the region is the policy of Western countries, which, as he sees it, are trying to prolong the armed conflict in Ukraine.

Summing up the broader picture, he said that 2025 was marked by growing geopolitical confrontation and a worsening situation in areas of collective security, as zones of instability have come right up to the borders of ODKB states.

The colonel-general also believes that the unfriendly course pursued by Western countries and their refusal to engage with the so-called global majority are pushing the entire international security architecture into a destructive transformation.