'Now is the time to break their backs': Retired generals assess Ukraine's fight against Russia

American retired flag officers are opining this month not on politics, but on their area of expertise — warfare — in the aftermath of battlefield reports coming out of Ukraine.

"At this stage, what we're seeing when we confront the horrors and the mass murder that has occurred and the horrible abuses, I think we feel now compelled to do more," retired Lt. Gen. and former White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. 

McMaster and other retired three-and-four star Army officers spoke out following reports of war crimes committed near Kyiv by Russian troops. Among the startling reports was the claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces had killed civilians in Bucha, and had executed people whose hands were tied behind their backs.

The time is now right to push the military offensive against Russia, one former three-star general said.

"We're in the decisive phase of the campaign," according to retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe. "The next three weeks are going to determine, I think, what happens in the future. The Russians — now is the time to break their backs so that they are not able to regroup, because they have shown from history that they can and will regroup if given the chance."

The fight in Ukraine is crucial, said the former NATO commander, retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

"This is for all the marbles here in Ukraine," Clark said on CNN Sunday. 

In the expected forthcoming fight for the eastern Donbas region, the U.S. should send Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky what he asks for, advised Clark, now a CNN military analyst.

"We've just got to break the logjam in getting them the full array of equipment they need and not prejudging it and thinking we know better than they do," he said. "We probably don't, not on this battlefield."

McMaster concurred.

"I think what we shouldn't do is wait any longer to do what it takes to give Ukraine all the tools necessary to fully beat back this offensive and to make it clear to the Russians that they're going to be unable to renew an offensive in the future," he said.

Ukrainian forces differ from other militaries in other conflicts, because they have the will to win, Clark said.

"We've been advising people for years that don't really want to fight," he said, naming the Afghan, Iraqi, and Vietnamese forces. "But these people want to fight. They know how to do it. We've got to listen to them and give them what they need to win." 

Hodges two years ago told Just the News that Russia would invade Ukraine.

"Their objective is not to take over Europe," he said. "It's to undermine the NATO alliance and the European Union. Their objective is to control the Black Sea and isolate Ukraine from it."

Russia values the Black Sea because it offers access to Syria and Libya, Hodges said. 

Retired four-star officers came under fire in 2020, after they lambasted then-President Donald Trump. The officers, who included former Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis, former Special Operations Command chief Adm. William McRaven, and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, were among those who drew criticism for allegedly violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice and using "contemptuous words" against a sitting commander in chief.

None were recalled to active duty to be prosecuted.