diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 3d1b62245..02a8aa202 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -360,22 +360,26 @@ install-cri-deps: $(BINARIES)
 	@$(INSTALL) $(BINARIES) $(CRIDIR)/bin
 endif
 
+$(CRIDIR)/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt:
+	@mkdir -p $(CRIDIR)
+	@$(INSTALL) -m 644 releases/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt $@
+
 ifeq ($(GOOS),windows)
-releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps
+releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps $(CRIDIR)/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
 	@echo "$(WHALE) $@"
 	@cd $(CRIDIR) && tar -czf ../../releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz *
 
-releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps
+releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps $(CRIDIR)/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
 	@echo "$(WHALE) $@"
 	@cd $(CRIDIR) && tar -czf ../../releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz *
 else
-releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps
+releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps $(CRIDIR)/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
 	@echo "$(WHALE) $@"
-	@tar -czf releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz -C $(CRIDIR) etc/crictl.yaml etc/systemd usr opt/containerd
+	@tar -czf releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz -C $(CRIDIR) cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt etc/crictl.yaml etc/systemd usr opt/containerd
 
-releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps
+releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz: install-cri-deps $(CRIDIR)/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
 	@echo "$(WHALE) $@"
-	@tar -czf releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz -C $(CRIDIR) etc usr opt
+	@tar -czf releases/$(CRICNIRELEASE).tar.gz -C $(CRIDIR) cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt etc usr opt
 endif
 
 cri-release: releases/$(CRIRELEASE).tar.gz
diff --git a/releases/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt b/releases/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..014103407
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/cri-containerd.DEPRECATED.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+The "cri-containerd-(cni-)-VERSION-OS-ARCH.tar.gz" release bundle has been deprecated since containerd 1.6,
+does not work on some Linux distributions, and will be removed in containerd 2.0.
+
+Instead of this, install the following components separately, either from the binary or from the source:
+* containerd:  https://github.com/containerd/containerd/releases
+* runc:        https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/releases
+* CNI plugins: https://github.com/containernetworking/plugins/releases
+
+The CRI plugin has been included in containerd since containerd 1.1.
+
+See also the "Getting started" document:
+https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/docs/getting-started.md