MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Western armies tend to rely too much on their armaments and experience of previous conflicts; as a result, they may fail to cope with new methods of combat operations and suffer defeat, Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander of Ukraine’s armed forces has said in a column for American magazine Defense One.
"Lulled by decades of multi-domain dominance, Western militaries have slumbered too long. Meeting adversaries armed with mass-deployed, attrition-optimized autonomous weapons they may end up as the proverbial victims of the German WW2 Blitzkrieg," he says.
Zaluzhny explained that in the modern conflict the main role is played by various autonomous weapons systems - tactical drones that conduct reconnaissance, strike, and fight with other drones; marine drones; autonomous platforms for the delivery of ammunition and evacuation of the wounded; means of electronic warfare, and motion sensors. All of this makes it possible to track any movement on the battlefield and strike within seconds.
Means of electronic warfare limit the possibilities for wireless data exchange, which is the most familiar to Western armies. It has been replaced by fiber optics; as decades ago, cables are laid underwater and underground again, for protection. At the same time, the new means of warfare are far less costly than the weapons produced by Western corporations, which makes it possible to mass-produce and use them on a wide scale. This enables even armed forces with limited resources to fight wars of attrition.
In this situation, Zaluzhny notes, a breakthrough is impossible for Ukrainian forces, even if there is willingness to sustain heavy losses. "Mobility is being sacrificed for protection, and stalemate has ensued," he noted.
Zaluzhny served as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief in 2023, when Ukrainian forces attempted an offensive in the south but were defeated. Later that year, he wrote an article for the British magazine The Economist that the fighting had reached a stalemate for the Kiev military. A few months later, Zaluzhny was dismissed as commander-in-chief.