![]() And you- you called it wholly appropriate at the time. I want to also ask you about- when you were in office back in 2017, which is the first time that the US gave off- offensive weapons to Ukraine, I remember when you were put in that position of having to explain a conversation then-President Trump had with Russian officials in the Oval Office, where he mentioned classified information. Well, the other weapon he has is energy, of course, and tracking this potential sabotage on the gas pipeline. We have to, but we ought to not allow this to cow us in terms of the support for the Ukrainians. So, I think that we ought to take it seriously. But, I'll tell you, Margaret, I don't think a nuclear weapon is usable there, you know. So, it's this cycle that he's responding to with the only quiver he has left, which is to, you know, to- to- to threaten the use of a nuclear weapon. And what the military is going back to Putin is saying, hey, it's not our fault. Now, he's going to them to bail him out with this- with this mobilization, and what you're seeing among the hypernationalist group of- of bloggers and- and- and even on state media, is a blaming of the military. And you have the Russian people now saying, okay, I thought this was a special military operation that Putin said, hey just leave this to me, don't worry about it. These are- these are men who were fleeing to neighboring countries to- to escape this- this conscription. I mean, what he's done is he's mobilized almost 300,000 people to leave the country. I mean, you- you have the failures on the battlefield, which we talked about, but also the mobilization is failing. First of all, I would say, Margaret, he's under extreme pressure. And- and the response from NATO and the United States doesn't have to be nuclear. MCMASTER: Well, I think the message to him is if you use a nuclear weapon, it's a suicide weapon. response would be if Russia used a nuclear tactical weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and as that happens on the battlefield, rhetorically you hear President Putin raise the volume, again dangling that nuclear threat on Friday, and there was another Russian leader who talked about using low yield nuclear weapons. Those forces were hastily trained, thrown into that front, and these are the forces that are collapsing just right right now. Remember when Putin was trying to recruit more and more people with paying about three-times the- the average wages to get so-called volunteers to go forward. ![]() And I think it's very important to- to also understand that these forces that are in full retreat now out of Lyman were really the first round of mobilization. If you look at just the numbers of casualties, the vast area that they're trying to defend, and now, of course, Russia is trying to mobilize conscripts and send them to- to the front untrained. And- and I think they must really be at a breaking point. ![]() And I think, Margaret, what we might be at here is really at the precipice of- of really the collapse of the Russian army in Ukraine, a moral collapse. This is the- the encirclement of Lyman and the- and the Russian forces pulling back, but also, in the last two days, the Ukrainians also simultaneously defeated a Russian- a Russian counterattack and also made progress further in the south near the strategically important city of Kherson. And it's a victory that I think that they could turn into a cascading series of defeats of Russian forces. Well, this is a tremendous victory for- for the Ukrainians. What do you see happening, and what do you forecast is Vladimir Putin's next move? I want to get your reaction to what Defense Secretary Austin called a significant development on the battlefield in the past 48 hours. H.R., thank you for updating us on what's happening on the ground in Ukraine with the Russian invasion. MARGARET BRENNAN: The Trump administration national security adviser in 2017, retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser in the Trump White House and a CBS News contributor, that aired on Sunday, Oct. ![]() The following is a transcript of an interview with retired Lt. ![]()
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