Former CIA Director and retired Army General David Petraeus told the Kyiv Security Forum and CBS News that Ukraine has “redefined modern warfare.” Traveling across Ukraine this week, he delivered remarks in an underground parking lot because of ongoing drone and missile threats to Kyiv.
Petraeus said Russia no longer holds the upper hand despite outnumbering and outgunning Ukraine and having a much larger economy. “The Ukrainian forces right now are stopping the Russians cold on the front lines,” he said, while also noting continued Russian glide-bomb and nightly drone attacks — “in fact, there were 400 drones just today with dozens of missiles.”
He argued that in recent weeks Ukrainian forces have made proportionally greater gains than Russian forces. Petraeus credited not only the tenacity, determination and skill of Ukrainian troops but also “the extraordinary innovation that has characterized what’s going on in Ukraine over the last two or three years.” Realizing they could not outnumber or outgun Russia, he said, Ukrainians decided to outsmart them.
Petraeus pointed to concrete technical advances he has observed on the battlefield, saying that Ukraine’s cruise missile now flies farther and carries a heavier payload than America’s cruise missile. He urged the United States to continue learning from and supporting Ukrainian partners as those innovations evolve through the course of the war.
CBS News international reporter Aidan Stretch conducted an interview with Petraeus in Kyiv following his remarks at the forum.