Ukraine Doesn’t Need to Win, It Just Can’t Lose — The “Thousand Cuts” Winning Strategy for Kyiv

There is a huge difference between Kyiv’s and Moscow’s strategic goals: on one hand, Zelensky is trying to survive, which means that Ukraine can’t lose. On the other hand, for Putin, after almost half a million Russian casualties, more than 20,000 pieces of military hardware destroyed, damaged, or captured, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, and the image of the formidable Russian military badly stained around the world, he needs to do more than just “not lose.” He can’t just give up…he HAS to WIN!

This difference in reality for Russia and Ukraine is something that Kyiv and its Western supporters can exploit. They can do so by not trying to defeat Russia outright — such as by taking Ukrainian territory back — but by bleeding the Russian bear through a “thousand cuts” until it dies a slow and painful death.

Death by a thousand cuts is not a new military strategy or tactic. It has been used often throughout history in asymmetric wars, where the weaker side doesn’t bother trying to defeat its stronger enemy directly. Instead, it relies on asymmetric warfare tactics, such as ambushes, cyber warfare, probing assaults, and long-range drones, to constantly attack its stronger adversary and ultimately undermine its morale, resources, and will to fight until it gives up.

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