Former Trump national security adviser says Russia acting ‘against the law of war’

H.R. McMaster, a former national security adviser during the Trump administration, said on Sunday that Russia’s “unprofessional force” in Ukraine was not abiding by “the law of war.”

“This is an unprofessional force. This is a force that is not adhering to the basic military ethic or the or the law of war or just war theory,” McMaster said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

McMaster pointed to the “Jus in bello” theory of international law which dictates how adversaries engage with one another in war, noting that it required forces to protect non-combatants.

“Of course, Russia actually, its tactic was to commit mass murder against non-combatants because it didn’t have the military competence to accomplish its objectives through fire and maneuver and the defeat of the opposing military force and then then the control of that territory,” McMaster said.

“So this is against the law of war. It’s against the military ethic and it’s against what we have in our armed forces.”

While also appearing on “Face the Nation” Sunday, Ukrainian Preisdent Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was attempting to carry out a “genocide” of the Ukrainian people.

“Indeed, this is genocide,” Zelensky told Brennan. “We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”