Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi has stated that Russia has developed countermeasures to virtually every NATO weapon system employed by Ukrainian forces.
Speaking at a diplomatic club meeting at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in Kyiv on August 5, Zaluzhnyi, who now serves as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said: “In 2026, Ukraine has used every type of weapon, except perhaps Tomahawks, nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers and F-35 aircraft that are in NATO’s arsenal, and it has applied the doctrines for their use. The resource has been exhausted. Russia has found a countermeasure to all of it.”
He had been asked to explain comments made days earlier at a general meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors, where he said Ukraine would never join the alliance, the news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported.
He pointed to the early impact and subsequent decline in effectiveness of specific systems.
“It all started with HIMARS, which gave the Armed Forces of Ukraine the ability to liberate the Kherson region, whatever anyone may tell you. HIMARS liberated the Kherson region, Bohdana howitzers and French Caesars liberated Snake Island. Exactly a month later, they turned into, well, a useless thing that was simply impossible to use.”
Zaluzhnyi argued that the war has left Ukrainian forces at a different technological level from current NATO standards, which he described as rooted in doctrines from the end of the Second World War.
He said the alliance “has no choice but to move to entirely new standards” before it would be ready for Ukrainian accession, and repeated earlier calls for consideration of a new security bloc, most probably anchored territorially in Europe.
He again cited the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the British-led grouping of 10 northern European states, as the model he considered most promising.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the ambassador’s words had been taken out of context and that the country’s course towards NATO membership remained unchanged.
Zaluzhnyi served as commander-in-chief from July 2021 until February 8, 2024.
His comments come amid ongoing discussion of Western military support for Ukraine and the adaptation of tactics on both sides of the conflict.
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi:
In 2026, Ukraine has used every type of weapon—except perhaps Tomahawks, nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers, and F-35 aircraft that are in NATO’s arsenal—and it has applied the doctrines for their use.… pic.twitter.com/kTjEXzunZs
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 10, 2026
