Casualties sustained by Ukraine and Russia in war are now critical – Zaluzhnyi. VIDEO
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, stated that the losses suffered by both Ukraine and Russia on the front line have become critical. The war could drag on until 2034.
He said this in an interview with LB.ua, Censor.NET reports.
According to Zaluzhnyi, the traditional war involving tank columns ended in December 2023. From 2024, a new phase began in Ukraine — a war of attrition.
Zaluzhnyi also identified two key factors shaping the future of the conflict: demographic and economic.
"There really are no people left. Neither in Russia nor in Ukraine. The number of killed and wounded relative to the population in both Ukraine and Russia has already reached, one could say, a critical level," emphasized the former commander-in-chief.
He believes Russia now faces a choice: in 2026, either to replenish its forces again with "cannon fodder" drawn from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other cities, or to "think differently."
"The way out of this ‘dead end’ (the war—ed.) is technological. You have to think not about what you need today, but what will be needed in one, two, or three years... This will end in three years. At most, five. Not the war itself, but the ‘establishment of parity’ between offense and defense forces," he said.
Zaluzhnyi added that ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine without building a stable defense for the future will lead to the war dragging on for decades. Ukraine needs to develop new weapons and quickly master them.
"If we don’t establish our future defense, the war will go on for quite a while. It started in 2014, and God willing, it will end around 2034," he concluded.
