### Bug or Regression

  
  Starting with Kubernetes `v1.36`, `kubelet` might refuse to start if the CRI runtime does not support this feature. More information can be found at the [Kubernetes blog](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2025/09/12/kubernetes-v1-34-cri-cgroup-driver-lookup-now-ga/). ([#134906](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/134906), [@carlory](https://github.com/carlory))

- Kubeadm: Switched kubeadm to start using the CRI client library instead of shelling out of the `crictl` binary
  for actions against a CRI endpoint. The kubeadm deb/rpm packages will continue to install the `cri-tools`
  package for one more release, but in you must adapt your scripts to install `crictl` manually from
  https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases or a different location.
  

- Bumped `KubeletCgroupDriverFromCRI` to GA and add metric to track out-of-support CRI implementations. ([#133157](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/133157), [@haircommander](https://github.com/haircommander)) [SIG Node and Testing]

- kubeadm: if the `NodeLocalCRISocket` feature gate is enabled, remove the `kubeadm.alpha.kubernetes.io/cri-socket` annotation from a given node on `kubeadm upgrade`. ([#129279](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/129279), [@HirazawaUi](https://github.com/HirazawaUi)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle and Testing]