{
  "id": 7538979,
  "title": "A century ago, bright red trousers made soldiers easy targets. Ukraine’s ex-army chief says the West is wearing them again",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/a-century-ago-bright-red-trousers-made-soldiers-easy-targets-ukraines",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-15T11:16:24.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Euromaidan Press",
    "slug": "euromaidan-press",
    "url": "https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/09/15/a-century-ago-bright-red-trousers-made-soldiers-easy-targets-ukraines-ex-army-chief-says-the-west-is-wearing-them-again/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Former top Ukrainian commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi has warned that modern warfare is not just about technology, but also about the strategies and doctrines that keep pace with it. In a recent column, he argues that Ukraine’s mobilization efforts have failed to adapt to the rapidly evolving drone landscape, and that treating drones as a standalone class is now three years behind the times.\n\nZaluzhnyi draws a parallel to World War I, where soldiers wore bright red trousers in an attempt to counter repeating rifles, machine guns, and long-range artillery, as well as future tanks and aircraft. He cautions that clinging to outdated security guarantees is akin to blindly trusting those same red trousers on the modern battlefield.\n\nHe laments that the current war has become a playground for marketers and opportunists who capitalize on technological progress without any strategy or understanding. The retaking of land using Soviet methods and new weapons has led to a dead end in mobilization, with fewer and fewer people willing to take part.\n\nZaluzhnyi advocates for treating technology as a new weapon, building tactics around it, and then reshaping the force. This approach, he calls doctrine, which can be built through resource and technological alliances into a strategy for victory. Ukraine and Russia, he notes, have become living laboratories for testing these evolving strategies.",
  "summary": "Ukraine's ex-army chief Zaluzhnyi: the war has surrendered itself to marketers and wheeler-dealers chasing quick profit, and the West's old security guarantees are the red trousers all over again.",
  "key_points": [
    "Bright red trousers in WWI made soldiers easy targets against new weapons.",
    "Ukraine's approach to drones lags three years behind current drone technology."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}