US warns Russia conflict with Ukraine would be
‘horrific’ as tensions simmer
Top US officials call for diplomacy to address Russian
military buildup on the Ukraine border, saying conflict is ‘not inevitable’
Sat 29 Jan
2022 06.15 GMT
The US has
warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be “horrific” for both sides, while
calling for a diplomatic solution as tensions over Moscow’s military buildup on
the border of the country continued to simmer.
Speaking at
the Pentagon on Friday, top US officials urged a focus on diplomacy while
saying that Russia now had enough troops and equipment in place to threaten the
whole of Ukraine.
Any such
conflict, warned the top US general, Mark Milley, would be “horrific” for both
sides.
“If that
was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and it
would result in a significant amount of casualties,” Milley said.
“It would
be horrific, it will be terrible,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff
added.
Speaking
alongside Milley, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said the buildup of Russian
forces along Ukraine’s border has reached the point where Putin now has a
complete range of military options, including actions short of a full-scale
invasion.
But Austin
said war in Ukraine could still be avoided.
“Conflict
is not inevitable. There is still time and space for diplomacy,” said Austin.
“Mr Putin
can do the right thing as well,” he said. “There is no reason that this
situation has to devolve into conflict. He can choose to de-escalate. He can
order his troops away.”
On Friday,
US president Joe Biden said he would send a small number of US troops to
eastern European and Nato countries “in the near term”.
The
Pentagon has already placed about 8,500 US troops on stand-by for possible
deployment to Europe amid Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine’s border.
“I’ll be
moving troops to eastern Europe and the Nato countries in the near term. Not
too many,” Biden told reporters on return to Washington from a speech in
Philadelphia.
It comes as
Vladimir Putin gave his first public comments on US and Nato responses to
Russian proposals to rewrite the post-cold war security architecture. Putin
said the US and its Nato allies had ignored Russia’s main security concerns,
but promised to continue talks with the west, in a call with Emmanuel Macron.
The Russian
leader said Moscow’s concerns about the expansion of Nato and the deployment of
strike weapons near its borders had not been taken into account, according to a
Kremlin readout of the phone call with his French counterpart.
Macron told
Putin that Russia had to respect the sovereignty of states, according to the
Élysée. Putin agreed to continue talks, so there was a feeling that “things
have moved”, a French presidency official said.
More than
100,000 Russian troops have massed at the border with Ukraine, prompting Biden
to tell Zelenskiy on Thursday there was “a distinct possibility that the
Russians could invade Ukraine in February”.
Asked about
the call, Zelenskiy said he did not consider the situation more tense than
before. “There is a feeling abroad that there is war here. That’s not the
case,” he said. “I am not saying an escalation is not possible … [but] we don’t
need this panic.”
Europeans
have taken a more cautious approach to predictions of a Russian attack than
Washington. The head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service said on Friday
that Russia was not yet fixed on an invasion, although it was prepared. “I
believe that the decision to attack has not yet been made,” Bruno Kahl told
Reuters.
In a call
with Macron lasting longer than an hour, Putin said the US and Nato had not
taken into account Moscow’s “fundamental concerns” about the expansion of Nato
and deployment of strike missiles near the Russian border.
Washington
and European capitals rejected Russia’s demands to veto Ukraine’s Nato
membership, but set out proposals on other ways to improve security on the
continent in the unpublished documents.
“The key
question was ignored,” Putin was reported to have said, according to the
Kremlin statement. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
Russia’s relationship with Nato, the Russian president went on to say, were
based on the principle that “no one should strengthen their security at the
expense of other countries”.
The Russian
leader also promised to “carefully study” the US and Nato written responses and
continue a “Russian-French dialogue on the entire range of European security
questions”.
Putin told
the French leader Russia would continue talks in the so-called Normandy format
that brings together representatives from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia,
following talks earlier this week between the quartet of countries.
Putin told
Macron that the French president was “the only one who he could have such
serious discussions with”, according to the French presidency source.
There was
“disagreement, but agreement in the necessity for dialogue and that the
Europeans and France are part of the ongoing dialogue”, said the French
official. “Dialogue is difficult and there were no solutions from this call.”
The French
president has long called for dialogue with Russia, sometimes angering other EU
member states that have preferred a more distanced approach.
Late
Friday, British prime minister Boris Johnson said he was planning to visit the
Ukraine region and hold crisis talks with Putin next week.
The
Associated Press and Agence-France Press contributed to this report
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