In spite of the expectations of Moscow, the war in Ukraine has quickly turned into a war of attrition. Based on open-source military publications, this paper aims to present Russian views on the causes of positional war as well as on the future of manoeuvre warfare. While not questioning the purpose of the war, in between the lines, Russian military thinkers acknowledge the responsibility of the political leadership for underestimating Ukraine and using military force in a wasteful manner. On the other hand, they also recognise that the Russian military thinkers were selective when considering lessons of the previous decades, disregarding trends that were pointing to the heavily positional nature of contemporary wars. Finding ways to implement manoeuvre warfare in the current operational environment will most likely be high on the agenda of Russian military thought, as recent publications indicate.