Zaluzhny Says Ukraine War Is Now Attrition Fight
Valery Zaluzhny says the Ukraine conflict has become a war of attrition, where logistics, air defense and endurance now shape the outcome.
Former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny has argued in an article for The Telegraph that the Ukrainian conflict has moved into a war of attrition. In his view, the decisive factor is no longer a rapid breakthrough, but the ability of each side to withstand prolonged pressure and keep absorbing strikes over time.
Zaluzhny believes the situation on the battlefield is now close to a balance of forces. Neither Moscow nor Kiev, he wrote, can count on attacks against infrastructure to produce a decisive strategic outcome. The front line, meanwhile, is no longer the only measure of success. The conflict has turned into a contest over logistics, industrial capacity, critical infrastructure and air defense.
According to Zaluzhny, the central issue is not who takes another village or destroys another ammunition depot. The real test is which society can continue carrying the economic, military and psychological burden of a drawn-out confrontation while preserving the international support needed to keep fighting.
He also noted that wars of attrition rarely produce a clear winner in the conventional sense. Their outcome is shaped not by isolated tactical gains, but by the overall endurance of the states and societies involved in the conflict.