'Embarrassing': Trump's 'atrocious' plan to profit from Ukraine war stuns former diplomat

A former ambassador to Russia said on Sunday that the president's plan to profit from the war in Ukraine is "atrocious."

Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, discussed President Donald Trump's handling of the war in Ukraine on MSNBC's "Alex Witt Reports" on Sunday. McFaul said Trump's Russian counterpart has effectively been allowed to dictate how the war continues because Trump has been focused on the wrong objectives.

One aspect of the war that McFaul said Trump seems to be focused on is who is at fault for the peace negotiations breaking apart, instead of providing new weapons to Ukraine so they can continue fighting Russia. This has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand the war in Ukraine with almost no consequences, McFaul added.

"He needs to announce his new military assistance package for Ukraine," McFaul said. "It's great that he's allowing the Europeans to buy them from us, but it is atrocious to me and embarrassing to me that we are now profiting from the war in Ukraine."

Trump has also allowed Putin to cross his red lines with seeming impunity, McFaul said. That seems likely to continue unless Trump stands up to Putin, he added.

"The president has to put in place some consequences," McFaul said. "He has to implement new sanctions. And not just on the Indians. Directly on the Russian banks that are still not sanctioned. Directly on the so-called shadow fleet that runs Russian oil around the world. He can seize their assets. We still have $5 billion to $10 billion of Russian central bank assets in the United States."

Watch the entire clip below or by clicking here.