“Orders are increasingly bordering on criminal”: Former Azov chief of staff calls on Syrskyi to resign

Former Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov”, Bohdan “Tavr” Krotevych, has called on the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to resign.

He made this statement in an interview with The Guardian.

“Syrskyi must go,” the soldier said.

Krotevych accused Ukraine’s military leadership of issuing orders that were on the verge of criminality and said they were “criminally liable for not understanding the principles of modern warfare.” In particular, he referred to a lack of understanding of how FPV drones and glide bombs work.

“I started receiving orders from the high command, from the Commander-in-Chief’s headquarters, that were increasingly bordering on criminal—orders that, in good conscience, I could not carry out,” he said.

For example, the General Staff ordered soldiers to rest just 50 meters from the front line after rotating out of combat, placing them all at risk. The former Chief of Staff believes Syrskyi focused too much on the offensive in the Kursk region, while his own unit faced severe problems defending Pokrovsk, where soldiers stayed too long under intense pressure.

“Syrskyi doesn’t try to apply the higher science and art of war. He has only two approaches: if the enemy advances—just throw more people at it. And if the enemy gains the upper hand—pull the troops back and say you’re protecting their lives,” Tavr emphasized.

As a reminder, in February Krotevych announced he was ending his military service. In his Guardian interview, he said he was “70% sure he would leave” the Ukrainian army because commanders “ask of their soldiers things they would never ask of themselves.”

Previously, MP Maryana Bezuhla also accused Syrskyi of the failure of the Kursk offensive.

The New York Times had earlier reported that former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi mockingly called Syrskyi “a Russian general” because of his poor knowledge of Ukrainian and the fact that he spoke Russian during meetings.