{"id":1359558,"date":"2026-02-18T18:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/peace-without-victory-is-just-preparation-for-a-new-war-zaluzhny-said-citing-the-fundamental-lesson-of-debaltseve\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:02:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:02:34","slug":"peace-without-victory-is-just-preparation-for-a-new-war-zaluzhny-said-citing-the-fundamental-lesson-of-debaltseve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/peace-without-victory-is-just-preparation-for-a-new-war-zaluzhny-said-citing-the-fundamental-lesson-of-debaltseve\/","title":{"rendered":"“Peace without victory is just preparation for a new war,” Zaluzhny said, citing the fundamental lesson of Debaltseve."},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, February 18, marks the 11th anniversary of the withdrawal of Ukrainian Armed Forces units from Debaltseve. On this day, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny recalled one of the most important lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Valeriy Zaluzhny, the experience gained during the battle for Debaltseve became the foundation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ preparation for a full-scale Russian invasion. These battles forged the army and demonstrated the cost of agreements with the aggressor.<\/p>\n

“The battle for Debaltseve isn’t just about courage and struggle. It’s also a lesson. A lesson that the concept of peace in war is very relative. Peace without victory is just time\u2014time that either offers an opportunity or simply prepares the way for the next war. This lesson needs to be learned now, and not just by us,” emphasizes Valeriy Zaluzhny.<\/p>\n

The battle for Debaltseve, which lasted from January to February 2015, became one of the most dramatic chapters in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The city, a vital railway hub, was surrounded by enemy forces on three sides, forming the so-called “Debaltseve salient.”<\/p>\n

The fighting peaked in February, when Russian regular troops and militants under their control threw all their efforts into encircling the Ukrainian group. Concurrently, the Normandy Four negotiations were underway, resulting in the Minsk agreements. Despite the signed ceasefire agreement, the aggressor only intensified its assault on the city, culminating in the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from Debaltseve on February 18, 2015.<\/p>\n

According to official data, 110 service members were killed, 270 were wounded, 7 were captured, and 18 went missing between January 15 and February 18. During the entire defense of the Debaltseve bridgehead, 136 Ukrainian Armed Forces service members were killed and 331 were wounded.<\/p>\n

For his heroism and high professionalism during the fighting near Debaltseve, the then commander of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, Serhiy Shaptala, was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. This was announced by Ukraine’s fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, on February 18, 2015, during a visit to Artemivsk (now Bakhmut).<\/p>\n

Subsequently, from 2021 to 2024, Sergei Shaptala headed the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, working in a single team with Zaluzhny during the difficult months of repelling the aggressor’s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

As Pryamyi previously reported, Valeriy Zaluzhny accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> of failing to carry out the 2023 counteroffensive.<\/p>\n

Also follow “Pryamy”<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, February 18, marks the 11th anniversary of the withdrawal of Ukrainian Armed Forces units from Debaltseve. On this day, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny recalled one of the most important lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to Valeriy Zaluzhny, the experience gained during the battle for Debaltseve became the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1359549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76874],"class_list":["post-1359558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359559,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359558\/revisions\/1359559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1359549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}