Zaluzhnyi for The Economist: Ukraine needs high technology to win

The war in Ukraine is moving to a new stage of “positional” struggle with static and exhausting battles that benefit Russia. The Armed Forces of Ukraine need high technology to win, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in an column for The Economist.

“A positional war is a prolonged one that carries enormous risks to Ukraine’s armed forces and to its state,” Zaluzhnyi said. 

Ukraine will need air superiority, significantly improved means of radio-electronic warfare and counter-battery warfare, new mining technologies and the ability to mobilize and train more reserves to “escape out of this tra,”, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine explained.

“We also need to focus on modern command and control – so we can visualise the battlefield more effectively than Russia and make decisions more quickly – and on rationalising our logistics while disrupting Russia’s with longer-range missiles. New, innovative approaches can turn this war of position back into one of manoeuvre,” Zaluzhnyi said. 

Currently, Ukraine is trying to solve the listed problems. In particular, it introduces a single register of conscripts, plans to expand the category of citizens who can be called up, and “combat training”, which involves sending recently mobilized and trained servicemen to experienced front-line units for training.

“Russia should not be underestimated. It has suffered heavy losses and expended a lot of ammunition. But it will have superiority in weapons, equipment, missiles and ammunition for a considerable time. Its defence industry is increasing its output, despite unprecedented sanctions. Our NATO partners are dramatically increasing their production capacity, too. But it takes at least a year to do this and, in some cases, such as aircraft and command-and-control systems, two years,” Zalyzhnyi said. 

The full text of the column of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces can be read at the link.