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- International order will be wrecked if Russia gets away with its war on Ukraine, US Gen. Mark Milley told CNN.
- "If Russia gets away with this cost-free, then so goes the so-called international order," Milley said.
- Milley added, "If that happens, then we're entering into an era of seriously increased instability."
The whole international order will be wrecked if Russian President Vladimir Putin gets away "cost-free" with his unprovoked war on Ukraine, top US Gen. Mark Milley said on Tuesday.
"If this is left to stand, if there is no answer to this aggression, if Russia gets away with this cost-free, then so goes the so-called international order," Milley told CNN during an interview.
Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, continued, "And if that happens, then we're entering into an era of seriously increased instability."
The general also said during the interview that there is "much greater than Ukraine" at stake in Russia's invasion —which has already left thousands dead and forced millions to flee.
"What's at stake is the security of Europe," Milley said, adding that Russia's invasion "is the greatest challenge to the security of Europe since the end of World War II."
"And indeed, you can easily make the case that what's at stake is the global international security order that was put in place in 1945," Milley told CNN at Ramstein Air Base in Germany following a meeting hosted by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with allied countries.
Milley said the post-war world order has "prevented great power war, and underlining that entire concept is the idea that large nations will not conduct military aggression against smaller nations, and that's exactly what's happened here, an unprovoked military aggression by Russia against a smaller nation."
Though no superpowers have directly warred since World War 2, world powers like the US and the former Soviet Union fought many smaller nations including Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In recent decades the US and Russia have sparred in proxy fights across the developing world.
Before the start of Russia's war, Andrew Lohsen, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider's John Haltiwanger and Ryan Pickrell that even though the US and its allies are unlikely to go to fight on Ukraine's behalf, an invasion could trigger "an era of more open confrontation" between Russia and NATO countries.
"We are entering into a time when conflicts are probably going to appear more often or could be more deadly because we no longer have agreed rules of what is acceptable behavior," Lohsen said. "This brings us back to an era of expansionist conflicts and basically rewinds the clock."
Putin launched Russia's war against Ukraine on February 24, and since then Russian troops have surrounded and shelled several cities across the eastern European country, hitting multiple civilian targets, including hospitals, schools and train stations.
"Now is the time and right now is the opportunity here to stop aggression and to restore peace and security to the European continent," Milley told CNN.
The US and its NATO allies have rallied behind Ukraine, slapping unprecedented sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion. Additionally, Western leaders have condemned Russia and accused it of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
source https://www.businessinsider.com/milley-russia-ukraine-war-so-goes-international-order-2022-4