Focus on Drones, Not Western Support: Ukraine’s Military Leader Advises New Approach Against Russian Aggression

Key Points:

• Ukraine’s military chief stated that the nation needs to get ready for a drop in Western assistance.
• Instead, he claimed, Ukraine can defeat Russia by utilizing drone technology.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, stated that the nation needs to get ready for a drop in Western assistance in its conflict with Russia and instead rely on unmanned aerial vehicles and other technological means to prevail.

Zaluzhnyi, whose job is allegedly in jeopardy, made the remarks in an opinion piece for CNN, where he talked about the difficulties facing Ukraine as the anniversary of Russia’s invasion without warning draws near.

The opinion piece is a must-read because it offers an incredibly candid analysis of Ukraine’s challenges and the creative solutions it will need to succeed.

Although Russia is stronger in terms of force, Ukraine has frequently used sophisticated and occasionally makeshift technological solutions to fend off attacks.
Zaluzhnyi dubbed the Iron General, wishes to use this tactic more frequently.

To defeat Russia, he said, Ukraine’s military needs to be put on a new foundation.

“Our goal must be to seize the moment — to maximize our accumulation of the latest combat capabilities, which will allow us to commit fewer resources to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, to end the aggression and protect from it in the future,” he stated.

According to him, if They want to prevent the conflict from turning into a “positional” war—a war of attrition in which both sides are entrenched in their defensive positions with little movement—unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, will become more and more important.

“Perhaps the number one priority here is mastery of an entire arsenal of (relatively) cheap, modern, and highly effective, unmanned vehicles and other technological means,” he stated.

“Crucially, it is these unmanned systems — such as drones — along with other types of advanced weapons, that provide the best way for Ukraine to avoid being drawn into a positional war, where we do not possess the advantage.”

He pointed out that there is a shortage of Western assistance and essential weaponry.

Congress is currently blocking $66 billion in US aid, and a European Union aid package has also been delayed. “We must contend with a reduction in military support from key allies, grappling with their political tensions,” he said.

He claimed that Russia had several advantages, including a manpower advantage and the fact that the Western sanctions had not seriously hampered its ability to increase its weapons production.

Amidst difficulties in increasing the number of military recruits, Zaluzhnyi stated, “We must acknowledge the significant advantage enjoyed by the enemy in mobilizing human resources and how that compares with the inability of state institutions in Ukraine to improve the manpower levels of our armed forces without the use of unpopular measures.”

Zaluzhnyi also mentioned issues with the industries in Ukraine that produce weapons and ammunition, but he added that shifting Ukraine’s focus to new technologies could give it an advantage.

“Technology boasts an undoubted superiority over tradition,” he stated.

The use of drones by Ukraine has yielded significant results in recent months. Drones have been used to monitor the battlefield, target Russian units, destroy Russian warships, and attack oil and gas facilities located hundreds of miles inside Russian territory.

According to reports, Zaluzhnyi is going to be fired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In an attempt to expel Russian forces from areas they control in east and south Ukraine, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive last year, but it was unable to make a significant advance.

Tensions with Zelenskyy are said to have arisen from an essay published in The Economist last year in which Zaluzhnyi acknowledged that the counteroffensive had failed to accomplish its goals.

The New York Times reports that US officials are assisting Ukraine in enhancing its domestic technology and weaponry production capacity in the event that Western assistance continues to dwindle.