2023-11-02T13:48:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T04:57:19+03:00

Ukrainian news

Zaluzhnyi announces beginning of new stage of war and names priorities, implementation of which will allow to

Zaluzhnyi announces beginning of new stage of war and names priorities, implementation of which will allow to gain advantage over russia

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, gave an interview to The Economist magazine, in which he talked about the transition of the confrontation between Ukraine and russia to a new level, and also explained why a positional war carries huge risks for the Ukrainian army.

The Economist published the relevant material on Wednesday, November 1.

According to Zaluzhnyi, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, Ukraine was able not only to stop the advance of a much stronger enemy, but also to liberate a significant part of the lost territory.

However, now the conflict is moving into a new stage - a "positional" war, which involves protracted and static battles, as it was in the First World War.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine emphasized that a protracted war is extremely beneficial to russia, as it will allow it to restore its military power, which ultimately threatens Ukraine.

"A positional war is a protracted war that carries huge risks for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and its state... New, innovative approaches can turn a positional war into a maneuverable one," Zaluzhnyi said.

But for this, Ukraine needs everything: from air superiority and improvement of electronic warfare, to raising the level of counter-battery warfare and new demining technologies.

What does Zaluzhnyi think Ukraine needs to achieve superiority over russia?

Drones

"Drones should be part of our response as well. Ukraine should launch massive strikes using false and strike drones to overwhelm russian air defense systems.

We must pursue the russian drones with our own hunter drones equipped with nets.

We must use signal false targets to engage russian glide bombs. And to dazzle the thermal imaging cameras of russian drones at night, it is necessary to use stroboscopes.

This points to the second priority task..."

Electronic warfare (EW)

"EW is the key to winning the drone war. Over the past decade, russia has modernized its electronic warfare forces, creating a new type of military and building 60 new types of equipment.

In this area, it surpasses us: 65% of our platforms for setting obstacles at the beginning of the war were produced during Soviet times.

We have already created many proprietary electronic protection systems that can prevent jamming. But we also need greater access to the electronic intelligence of our allies, including data from signals intelligence gathering facilities, and the expansion of production lines for our unmanned electronic defense systems in Ukraine and abroad.

We must do better electronic warfare against drones in a wider range of radio frequencies, while avoiding accidentally suppressing our own drones."

Counter-battery fight

"The third task is counter-battery fight: defeating the enemy's artillery. In this war, as in most past wars, artillery, rocket and rocket-artillery fire constitutes 60-80% of all combat tasks. When we first received Western guns last year, we managed to detect and hit the russian artillery quite successfully.

But the effectiveness of weapons like the Excalibur, an American GPS-guided projectile, has been dramatically reduced by improvements in russian electronic warfare.

At the same time, russia's counter-battery fire has improved. Largely due to the use of Lancet munitions, which work in tandem with reconnaissance drones, and increased production of high-precision projectiles that can be guided by ground observers.

Despite the dismissive attitude of some military analysts, we cannot discount the effectiveness of russian weapons and intelligence in this regard.

So far we manage to achieve parity with russia at the cost of less and more accurate firepower. But this may not be enough. We need to build up local GPS fields - use ground-based radars, not just satellites - so that our high-precision missiles are more accurate in the face of russian interference.

We need to use kamikaze drones more actively to target russian artillery. And our partners need to send us more advanced artillery reconnaissance equipment capable of detecting russian guns."

Mining and demining technologies

"At the beginning of the war, we had limited and outdated equipment for this. But even Western supplies, such as Norwegian tanks and rocket launchers for demining, proved insufficient given the scale of russian minefields, which in places stretch for 20 km. When we manage to break through minefields, russia is rapidly restocking them by launching new mines from a long distance.

The way out is in technology. We need radar-like sensors that use invisible pulses of light to detect mines in the ground, and smoke-generating systems to mask the actions of our sapper units.

We can use jet engines from decommissioned aircraft, water cannons or cluster munitions to break through minefields without digging into the ground. New types of tunnel excavators will also help, for example, a robot that uses plasma cutters to lay tunnels."

Stock building

"The fifth and final priority is building up our stockpiles. Russia has been unable to use its significant manpower advantage because vladimir putin fears that a general mobilization could lead to a political crisis, and because russia cannot train and arm enough number of people.

However, our ability to train reservists on our own territory is also limited. We cannot easily release the soldiers who are sent to the front. Moreover, russia can strike at educational centers. In addition, there are gaps in our legislation that allow citizens to avoid fulfilling their duties.

We are trying to solve these problems. We are introducing a unified register of conscripts, we must expand the category of citizens who can be called up for assembly or mobilization. We are also introducing 'combat training', which involves placing newly mobilized and trained servicemen in experienced frontline units for their training."

Zaluzhnyi emphasized that russia should not be underestimated, despite the fact that it suffered heavy losses and spent a lot of ammunition.

The country will have an advantage in weapons, equipment, missiles and ammunition for a long time.

He also reminded that russia is increasing its own production capacity, despite unprecedented sanctions from the international community.