Former national security adviser: ‘Putin got a lot more than he bargained for’

H.R. McMaster, who served as former President Trump’s national security adviser, said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “got a lot more than he bargained for” when he invaded Ukraine last week.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” McMaster said Ukrainian forces have done a “tremendous” job.

“I think Putin got a lot more than he bargained for. He’s in a very difficult position,” McMaster told host Margaret Brennan. “And I think anything we can do obviously financially — going after his international criminal enterprise with sanctions and so forth — is important. But the support for Ukraine’s ability to defend themselves is also important.”

McMaster added that Putin had failed to understand that Ukraine is not an autocratic regime where a political decapitation would be effective.

“The Ukrainian people are fighting for their freedom. They’re fighting for democracy. They’re fighting for one another and their sovereignty, and that just doesn’t go away if he’s able to seize Kyiv ” he said. “I don’t think seizing Kyiv is in the cards in the immediate future. The next 72 hours, I think, are going to be really critical.”

Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv is still under Ukrainian control as of Sunday morning. Thousands of Ukrainians, many of whom are civilians, have taken up arms to defend the nation against Russia.

McMaster also said while discussing the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine that there are multiple military options available outside of the U.S. directly going to war with Russia.

According to the former White House official, efforts could be made to reopen commercial airline flights in Ukraine in order to relieve “humanitarian suffering” and maintain open land routes to neighboring countries such as Poland, Romania and Moldova.

Another option would be to resupply Ukrainians with weapons, McMaster said.