Ukraine's former commander-in-chief believes Europe not ready for long war with Russia

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's Ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, believes that European countries are not ready for a prolonged war with Russia.

Source: Valerii Zaluzhnyi in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "If we are talking about short-term military operations, European countries are most likely ready. But the essence of the question was whether they were ready for a war of attrition. Let's just do the maths. Look, in October, Ukraine was attacked 1643 times with Shaheds and about 200 missiles against civilian energy facilities. The trend will be to increase this number. This month alone [November 2024 – ed.], if we count the number of Shaheds and missiles that have hit civilian objects, it reaches 3,000. And the month is not even over yet.

So, the number of aerial targets is growing, and the number of countermeasures assets is limited and too expensive. Even by this number, I believe neither the UK nor European countries will be ready [for possible military action against Russia – ed.]. Despite the fact that they have a sufficient number of F-16s, which have excellent air defence capabilities, the air defence network can be completely exhausted in 2-3 months.

It is difficult to say whether they are engaged in alternative measures to learn how to deal with air targets. Most likely they're not."

Details: Zaluzhnyi also noted that "in October and September, the front line was hit by approximately 4,500 guided aerial bombs (KAB)". He stressed that a KAB has a warhead weight of 500 kilograms, while an Iskander warhead weighs 480 kilograms.

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "Does a European country or the UK have at least 5,000 missiles for the Patriot system to shoot down guided aerial bombs? I doubt it. Because they are very expensive, having too many of them is impossible because it is problematic to produce them. Therefore, regarding this military component, we can say that they are probably not ready."

Zaluzhnyi added that, in addition to military actions, the Russians use information and psychological operations in their strategy of "attrition".

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "Europe is in a warm environment [comfortable situation] and does not want to leave it now. Therefore, in my personal opinion, if they are ready for such a war for attrition, it will probably be with very great restrictions."

At the same time, Zaluzhnyi noted that he does not see an enemy having enough resources to be able to conduct large-scale military operations for a while.

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "I even doubt that China is ready to engage in large-scale actions now."

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