Ukrainian ex‑commander Zaluzhny warns West against assuming Russia has lost the war

Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s former top army commander and now ambassador to the United Kingdom, authored an analysis for the British newspaper The Telegraph. He cautions Western analysts not to equate recent Ukrainian drone strikes and logistical successes with a decisive Russian defeat. Zaluzhny describes the conflict as a war of attrition, where tactical gains come at high cost and neither side can claim a clear victory. He notes that Russia still controls a sizable portion of occupied Ukrainian territory, possesses larger manpower reserves and stronger industrial capacity for ballistic missiles, and shows no intention of ending the war on terms that would constitute a defeat. Ukraine, by contrast, remains dependent on continued Western military and financial aid and faces internal political pressures. Zaluzhny also warns that NATO’s Cold‑War‑era structures may be ill‑suited to modern high‑technology warfare, urging a realistic assessment of the alliance’s strengths and limits.