Washington— Lieutenant General HR McMaster, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, said on Sunday that the coming months will be “very critical” to determine the “next phase” of the war in Ukraine as the president-elect is expected to be able to. forced a settlement of negotiations when he entered the office.
McMaster, a CBS News contributor, said in “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that Russia and Ukraine both have an incentive to make “as many gains in the battlefield as possible before the new Trump administration arrives” as both countries seek influence. in the discussion.
With an eye to strengthening Ukraine’s position before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office in the new year, the Biden administration agreed in the last days to provide anti-personnel landmines to use, when lifting limit about the use of US-made long-range missiles to attack Ukraine on Russian territory. The move comes as Ukraine marks more than 1,000 days since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Meanwhile, many of Trump’s top picks for the administration’s top posts — Rep. Mike Waltz for national security adviser and Sens. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and J.D. Vance for Vice President — have yet to support providing continued aid to Ukraine. or have advocated an end to war negotiations.
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McMaster said the dynamic is “a real problem” and will send a “psychological explosion to Ukrainians.”
“Ukraine is struggling to produce the necessary manpower and maintain its defense efforts, and it is important that it gets the weapons it needs and the training it needs, but it also needs to be confident that it can win,” he said. said. “And any message that reduces our aid is quite damaging from a moral point of view.”
McMaster said he hopes that Trump’s election, and the president-elect himself, will “start to see a pretty clear connection between the war in Ukraine and this axis of aggressors who are doing everything they can to undermine the existing international order.” He cited North Korean soldiers fighting on European soil in Europe’s first major war since World War II, China’s efforts to “support Russia’s war machine,” and Iran-supplied drones and missiles as part of a broader theme. picture.
“So I think what’s happening is a lot of people have a myopic view of Ukraine, and they misunderstand Putin’s intentions and how important the war is to our interests around the world,” McMaster said.
On Trump’s picks for national security and defense posts, McMaster emphasized the importance of Senate advice and the role of consent to ensure “the best people are in those positions.”
McMaster emphasized that based on his experience, Trump listens to advice and learns from those around him. And he stressed that candidates for director of national intelligence and secretary of defense should be asked important questions like how to “reconcile peace through force,” and what they think is “pushing, pushing and hindering” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has tapped former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is the director of national intelligence, who has been criticized for her views on Russia and other US adversaries. McMaster said Sunday that Gabbard had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what motivated Putin.
More broadly, McMaster said “can’t understand” Republicans who “tend to parrot Vladimir Putin’s talking point,” saying “he should disabuse himself of this strange affection for Vladimir Putin.”
Meanwhile, when asked about Trump’s new selection of Sebastian Gorka as senior director for counterterrorism and deputy assistant to the president, McMaster said he did not think Gorka was a good person to advise the president-elect on national security. But he noted that “the president, other people who work with him, will probably decide very quickly.”
