Debate is intensifying among experts over where a new global war could break out — or whether it may already have begun — and whether humanity would be able to survive such a conflict, Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, said at an international meeting of senior security officials.

Naryshkin described the situation in Europe as particularly alarming. In his view, the continent is once again moving rapidly toward becoming the epicenter of a global conflict, much as it did in the previous century.

He argued that the European Union is sharply expanding its military capabilities and changing its nature at an accelerating pace. What began as a transnational political and economic project, he said, is turning into a military alliance aimed against Russia.

Ukraine, which Naryshkin described as a battering ram against Russia, is increasingly failing in that role, according to his assessment. He pointed to the country’s steep population decline as one of the key reasons, saying that Europeans had effectively worn Ukraine down against Russia and that Ukrainians now faced the question of what comes next.

Naryshkin also focused on NATO activity near Russia’s eastern borders. He said the North Atlantic Alliance is steadily building up its military potential on its eastern flank, maintaining an intense pace of intelligence and training operations, and both modernizing existing infrastructure and creating new facilities.

In his assessment, NATO is in effect carrying out practical preparations for a large-scale armed conflict in the east.