%0 Journal Article
%A Torres-Soriano, Manuel Ricardo
%T The war that redefined cyber war: Russia, Ukraine and the gap between theory and practice
%D 2026
%U https://hdl.handle.net/10433/27065
%X This article examines the Russia-Ukraine war as an empirical stresstest for dominant theoretical assumptions about cyber warfare.Drawing on a quantitative analysis of cyber incidents reported byUkraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team and structuredqualitative assessment of the conflict’s most significantoperations, it identifies a paradox: Russian offensive cyber activityhas been quantitatively prolific yet strategically marginal whencompared to conventional kinetic means. Even the mostdestructive attacks produced effects that were temporary,reversible and localised, whereas kinetic strikes against the samecategories of targets caused permanent, systemic damage. Thearticle identifies four mutually reinforcing explanations: thestructural constraints inherent to offensive cyber operations, theeffectiveness of Ukraine’s whole-of-society defensive ecosystembuilt through prior preparation and international cooperation, thefunctioning of cross-domain deterrence in conditions whereattribution ambiguity dissolves and Russian organisationaldysfunction in cyber-kinetic integration. The findings challengethe assumption that offensive cyber operations alone cangenerate effects comparable to those in the traditional domainsof warfare. However, the analysis also reveals that defensive cyberoperations have contributed materially to Ukraine’s wartimesurvival, suggesting that the strategic value of the cyber domainlies primarily in enabling resilience and intelligence collectionrather than in independent infrastructure destruction.
%K Cyber warfare
%K Russia- Ukraine war
%K Cyber operations
%K Cyber deterrence
%K Cyber resilience
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