Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said Monday he is confident that NATO member states are quickly preparing for a possible war with Russia.

“They are not ready yet, but I think they will be ready. They are already preparing for a conflict with the Russian Federation and are preparing much faster than some people would like to see, in all respects,” Vučić told Serbian TV channel Pink, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

“We know about military preparations. We know how they are carried out. And I want to tell you, they are preparing for a military conflict,” he said.

Newsweek NATO asked for comment by email.

Russia is Serbia’s main ally in blocking international recognition of its former province of Kosovo, and Vučić has insisted he would not take sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. He refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow following President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On July 2, after meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko in Belgrade, Vučić described relations between Serbia and Russia as “very good.” However, his country has indirectly supplied Ukraine with ammunition worth about 800 million euros ($871 million), FT reported.

Vučić said Monday that “as long as no people from the West die, or only volunteers, the West does not care how many Ukrainians die.”

Tensions between Russia and the West have remained high during Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has accused the alliance of involvement in the war by providing Kiev with military assistance and weapons.

The Serbian leader’s comments came weeks after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the military alliance has more than 500,000 troops on high alert, meaning the troops could be deployed within 30 days.

“Since 2014, NATO has undergone the most significant transformation in our collective defense in a generation. We have implemented the most comprehensive defense plans since the Cold War,” Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 18.

“We have 500,000 troops on high alert and we have doubled the number of battle groups in the eastern part of the Alliance,” Stoltenberg continued, describing Russia’s war in Ukraine as “a brutal attack on a peaceful democratic nation.”

“This war is being perpetuated by China, North Korea and Iran. They want the United States to fail. They want NATO to fail. If they succeed in Ukraine, we will be more vulnerable and the world will be more dangerous. So our support for Ukraine is not charity. It is in our own security interests,” he said.

Stoltenberg added: “We all want this war to end. But a Russian occupation of Ukraine does not offer peace. And capitulation to Putin does not offer security. The stronger our support, the sooner the war will end.”

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