A high-profile former Ukrainian commander has called for the head of the country’s military to step aside, accusing him of a lack of strategic imagination and putting Ukrainian soldiers’ lives at risk with “borderline criminal” orders.
Bohdan Krotevych, who quit as the chief of staff of the Azov brigade in February partly so he could speak out, said he believed that armed forces commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, “must go” and Ukraine’s military leadership must be shaken up.
“The general staff ordered that when a soldier’s shift [on he frontline] is over, they can’t rest in the rear, they have to rest 50 metres from the front,” Krotevych said, which he added was typically at a platoon forward observation base.
Forcing soldiers to recover so close to the front put “all these people in grave danger”, he argued. He accused the army command of being “criminally guilty of not understanding the principles of war right now” and in particular “how FPV drones work, how glide bombs work”.
The Azov brigade… Is that different from the Azov Battalion - as in the portion of the Ukrainian military that was raising red flags for being known for only recruiting fascists? I had thought they majority died in Mariupol.
My gut tells me to probably meet criticism from this guy with a healthy dose of skepticism. Obviously should still listen, since these criticisms do matter. I just don’t know how much I trust where it’s coming from.
Edit: switched ‘branch’ to ‘portion’, since ‘branch’ is a more formal subdivision than I’m meaning.