UKRAINE: THE SITUATION 709 - FEBRUARY 1, 2024

The Ukrainian Supreme Commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has presented a comprehensive strategy aimed at seizing and maintaining the initiative across the entire Ukrainian theater of war to enable Ukrainian victories on the battlefield despite Russia's personnel and material advantages.

Zaluzhnyi's strategy aims to offset Ukraine's existing challenges and achieve advantages over the Russian military through comprehensive technological innovation and adaptation. The Ukrainian Armed Forces released an essay by Zaluzhnyi on February 1 titled "The Modern Conception of Military Operations in the Russian-Ukrainian War: In the Struggle for Initiative", in which Zaluzhnyi argues that the demands of each war are unique and dictate a unique strategy for victory. Zaluzhnyi identified "decisive conditions" for Ukraine to conduct successful operations, including achieving absolute air superiority to enable effective Ukrainian firepower, logistics, and reconnaissance; seizing the initiative by denying Russian forces the ability to conduct offensive or defensive operations; increasing Ukrainian mobility while restricting Russian mobility; ensuring secure access to unspecified key lines and important terrain; and denying any opportunity for Russian forces to retake lost positions and intensify Russian operational efforts.

The "decisive conditions" highlighted by Zaluzhnyi would indeed give the Ukrainian Armed Forces the initiative across the entire theater of war and set the conditions for Ukraine to conduct operationally significant defensive and offensive operations. Zaluzhnyi argued that the rapid development of new technologies is changing the means by which Ukraine can achieve these "decisive conditions" and that, faced with Russia's superior ability to mobilize men, Ukrainian forces cannot achieve these conditions through conventional methods. Zaluzhnyi argued that new technological means such as drones, unmanned systems, system integration, and other advanced technological systems can allow Ukrainian forces to maximize their combat potential with fewer resources and inflict maximum damage on Russian forces.

The full Russian Offensive Update 709 is available directly from UNDERSTANDING WAR.

UNDERSTANDING WAR