{"id":29708,"date":"2026-08-18T00:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/29708\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:40:08","slug":"former-ukraine-army-chief-warns-russia-has-adapted-to-western-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/29708\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ukraine Army Chief Warns Russia Has Adapted to Western Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhny has warned<\/a> that Russia has developed countermeasures to many Western weapons supplied to Ukraine, arguing that NATO must revise its military standards to reflect the realities of modern warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientific and technological progress is moving forward. In 2026, Ukraine used virtually every type of weapon \u2013 except Tomahawk missiles, nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers and F-35s that are in NATO service,\u201d Zaluzhny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resource has been exhausted. Russia has found countermeasures to all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

His latest comments<\/a> came days after statements about Kyiv\u2019s NATO aspirations drew criticism and prompted clarification from Ukrainian officials.<\/p>\n

Zaluzhny, now Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to the UK, said he remains a supporter of NATO and recalled advocating for Ukraine\u2019s transition to alliance standards as early as 2019.<\/p>\n

Rethinking NATO Standards<\/p>\n

Zaluzhny said the conflict has transformed Ukraine\u2019s armed forces beyond NATO\u2019s current operational concepts and argued that the alliance will need to adapt if it is to meet the demands of future conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Armed Forces of Ukraine have reached a completely different level. NATO has no choice but to move to entirely new standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly then will NATO be ready for Ukraine\u2019s accession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has received a broad range of Western military assistance, including advanced air defense systems, long-range missiles, armored vehicles, artillery, drones, and main battle tanks from NATO and partner countries.<\/p>\n

Both Russia and Ukraine have continuously adapted their tactics, particularly in areas such as electronic warfare, drone operations<\/a>, precision strikes, and air defense.<\/p>\n

Clarifies Earlier NATO Remarks<\/p>\n

His latest comments follow controversy over remarks in which he said Ukraine would \u201cnever join\u201d NATO because the alliance\u2019s military standards remain rooted in doctrines developed after World War II.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s foreign ministry later said those remarks had been taken out of context and reaffirmed that Kyiv\u2019s objective of joining NATO remains unchanged.<\/p>\n

Ukraine formally applied for accelerated NATO membership in September 2022. While alliance members have repeatedly stated that Ukraine\u2019s future lies in NATO, no timeline for accession has been set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhny has warned that Russia has developed countermeasures to many Western weapons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10742,25,10743,26,352],"class_list":["post-29708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-countermeasures","tag-russia","tag-tactics","tag-ukraine","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}