After more than four years of resisting Russia’s full-scale aggression, Ukraine offers invaluable lessons to NATO countries, ranging from the effective use of low-cost technologies on the battlefield to building national resilience and preparing for prolonged wars.
Can Kasapoğlu, Senior Fellow and Defense Analyst at Hudson Institute, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.
“Ukraine offers invaluable lessons to NATO. The first one is pennies versus dollars. Affordable, scalable, sustainable mass can outperform exquisite systems in combat,” Kasapoğlu said.
According to the expert, comparing the cost of Ukrainian drones with the value of the Russian equipment they destroy showed how defense-economics asymmetry can systematically impose attrition.
In his view, the second important lesson is the need to assess “red lines” rather than mythologize them.
“Ukraine sank the Moskva, struck Moscow, attacked Crimea and Alabuga, damaged energy infrastructure, and hit strategic-bomber bases through Operation Spiderweb. Before the war, Western analyses portrayed such actions as possible thresholds for Russian tactical nuclear use. That escalation did not occur. The risk remains, but deterrence requires empirical judgment, not paralysis,” Kasapoğlu said.
The expert identified national resilience as the third lesson.
“Few expected Ukraine to withstand a war of this scale, making national resilience-building as important as weapons procurement,” he stressed.
In addition, Kasapoğlu said, NATO must prepare for protracted interstate wars.
Read also: Ukrainian JATEC experts advise NATO troops on countering drones
As reported by Ukrinform, peace requires pressure on every member of the coalition supporting Russia until continuing the war forces them into a serious dilemma and a settlement begins to offer them benefits.