A large-scale attack by Russia in Ukraine would have “appalling” consequences, Pentagon officials warned Friday, while assuring that there is still room for diplomacy to prevent a war.
“You can imagine what dense urban areas would look like,” said the US chief of staff, Mark Milley, who foresees “a significant number of casualties” in the event of an offensive.
“It would be awful, it would be terrible”, He said.
Alongside Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that a conflict in Ukraine could still be avoided despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed more than 100,000 soldiers on your side of the border.
Ukrainian soldiers mobilized in exercises near the border with Poland. EFE photo.
“Conflict is not inevitable. There is still time and space for diplomacy,” Austin said. Putin “can decide on a de-escalation, he can order his troops to leave.”
The statements by the two US military leaders came at a time when no significant progress is being seen in diplomatic efforts to avoid a conflict.
While Pentagon officials said they don’t believe Putin has decided to go to war yet, they also said his options have expanded, from provocations that could lead to an attack in the breakaway region of Donbas to an attempt to seize all of the country with attacks on urban centers such as the capital, Kiev.
Milley expressed US concern about the concentration of some 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, including ground, air, naval, special forces and cyber troops.
In fact, he assured that such a large concentration of Russian soldiers has not been seen since the days of the Cold War: “This has a scale and scope greater than anything we have seen in recent memory, and I think you have to go back to the days of the Cold War to see something of this magnitude,” he said.
The White House says its letter is “constructive”
One of the spokespersons for the US government, Karine Jean-Pierre, recalled that on Wednesday her country and NATO formally responded to the security guarantees demanded by Russia with “effective” and “constructive” ideas aimed at addressing the concerns of Washington and your allies about the situation.
From Moscow, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, described this Friday the responses from Washington and the Alliance as “quite confusing”, although he admitted that they contain rational elements in “secondary matters”, such as the one related to the placement of short-range missiles and medium range.
In one lime and another of sand, the head of Russian diplomacy assured that “If it depends on Russia there will be no war”, although he stressed that Moscow will not allow its interests to be “rudely ignored and trampled on”.
For his part, the US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, clarified today in a telematic press conference that the letter sent by his country to Moscow includes the proposal for a “follow-up agreement” on the application of the nuclear arms control New START.
According to the diplomat, the letter proposes “transparency measures” on weapons and military exercises in Europe, as well as possible “control measures” on the use of missiles.
Likewise, it raises Washington’s “interest” in approaching “a New START follow-up agreement” with Russia, which limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons with a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems for each of the two powers, on land, sea or air.
Just one year ago, US President Joe Biden and Putin agreed to extend this treaty for five years.