The top US general stressed that the use of armed force should “always” be the last resort: “Success here is through dialogue.”
The United States on Friday urged Russia to take a step back in Ukraine and insisted that conflict is avoidable, given the escalation of tension with Moscow due to the mobilization of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.
“We strongly encourage Russia to withdraw and to seek a resolution through diplomacy,” said the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, at a press conference at the Pentagon.
Milley expressed the American concern at the concentration of some 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, including ground, air, naval, special and cyber forces, among others.
In fact, he assured that such a large concentration of Russian soldiers from the times of the Cold War has not been seen.
This is larger in scale and scope than anything we’ve seen in recent memory, and I think you have to go back to the days of the Cold War to see anything of this magnitude.
Along with Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared at the same press conference, stressing that the conflict with Russia is avoidable, although he warned that Washington will support its NATO allies in the event of a Russian attack against Ukraine.
In that sense, Austin assured that the US has offered Moscow “a path out of the crisis and towards greater security”.
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The Minister of Defense affirmed that for the moment Washington has not transferred soldiers in response to the Russian mobilization on the border with Ukraine, despite the fact that it has placed some 8,500 troops, which are on US soil., on “high alert” for a possible deployment in Eastern Europe.
Austin explained that if finally the US. send troops for a deployment, the goal will always be to support NATO.
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Milley added that the US military is “increasing its levels of preparedness” in the face of a hypothetical Russian attack, adding that there is currently “a small contingent” of US and NATO military advisers, as well as instructors, in Ukraine.
“The United States has zero combat weapons systems, permanent forces or bases in Ukraine,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. (I)
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