Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2021–2024), Valerii Zaluzhnyi, says the Russian-Ukrainian war has become not only a war of technologies but also a war of strategies and doctrines that are changing under the pressure of technological progress. He argues that focusing on individual technologies and their promotion is a major mistake, as this merely supplements Soviet-style strategy and requires Soviet-style personnel to implement it.
“It was precisely the desire to liberate territories and hold them using Soviet methods and strategies, albeit with new weapons, that drove mobilisation into a dead end. Mobilisation offered only one chance, and fewer and fewer people were willing to take it. We are simply unable to sustain a war of machines against a vast Soviet-style country where people are effectively turned into machines and sent to fight against actual machines... While recognising technology as a new form of weaponry, we must also remember the principles governing the development of military art and, on that basis, develop new forms and methods for employing it. Only after that should organisational changes be made to the structure of the Armed Forces that use these new weapons in these new forms and methods. This is precisely where mobilisation belongs — as part of a new strategy based on new weapons and genuinely new, rather than Soviet, forms and methods of warfare,” Zaluzhnyi wrote in an article for Ukrainska Pravda.
He stressed that the war between Ukraine and Russia can no longer be described simply as a drone war, as drones have “transformed into types of weapons already familiar to us, while reducing their cost, making them more accessible and increasing their effectiveness”.
According to Zaluzhnyi, the old rules no longer apply and modern warfare therefore requires new doctrines. He said Ukraine is already experiencing systematic pressure as a result of the introduction of a new approach to warfare, although he did not specify whom he meant by the “well-known intermediaries” exerting this pressure.
“Meanwhile, a war of technologies is already under way, and Ukraine is already experiencing systematic pressure resulting from the introduction not only of technologies but also of a new doctrinal approach to their use, including production and research as an integral part of strategy. This is precisely what allows Russia, through well-known intermediaries, to issue ultimatums to us. This is what is happening, and it could lead to a whole series of crises,” Zaluzhnyi wrote.
He stressed that a war of attrition “is not only about battles but also about fractures within societies; the key question is who causes them first”.
“To find a way out of this entirely predictable situation, we need to understand how to develop and implement a systemic response to Russian pressure. This systemic response must be based on a strategy in which joint production and the introduction of new technological solutions become part of a comprehensive approach both to defence and to influencing Russia’s ability to continue the war.
“To achieve this, the search for resource and technological alliances capable of supporting such production, including to meet their own defence needs, remains essential. This production must be doctrinally incorporated into a strategy for victory, in which the objective is not to produce some magical weapon system but the entire new arsenal required, including civilian technologies, in line with the conditions created by technological progress,” Zaluzhnyi concluded.
