One of the most famous officers from the "Azov" regiment, Bogdan Krotevych, known by his call sign Taurus, has sparked a storm of reactions in Ukraine with an interview with the publication "Ukrainskaya Pravda", in which he severely criticizes the military leadership and the strategy for waging the war against Russia.
Krotych states that Ukraine will not achieve victory just by exhausting the enemy and killing more Russian soldiers:
"I am categorically opposed to the idea that if we simply kill more Russians than they kill us, we will win. No, we will never win like this. This is not a strategy, but a path to nowhere. We must become smarter, stronger, act more effectively, and not just count bodies."
In a conversation with journalists from the publication, Krotevych emphasizes that after two years of fierce fighting, Ukraine needs not only weapons and ammunition, but also a profound change in the way the army is commanded. According to him, the prolonged war has exhausted the soldiers and has shown that the existing structure "works by inertia and punishes initiative."
The officer from "Azov" openly declares that it is time for changes in the high command and indirectly criticizes the commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrsky. "The army cannot be a pyramid of fear in which initiative is punished, not encouraged. "We need people who think ahead, not up," Krotevich said.
He added that the army's goal should not be just to destroy the enemy, but to protect the lives of its own soldiers by developing more flexible and intelligent methods of conducting combat operations. "When a state sets a goal to kill more enemies, instead of building a system to protect its people, this is no longer a strategy, but a statistics of losses," he said.
The interview sparked a lively discussion in Ukrainian media and social networks. Some in the public accepted his words as a voice of front-line realism, coming from a man who had survived captivity and years of heavy fighting, while others saw them as dangerous public criticism at a time when Kiev is striving to preserve internal unity.
Military observers note that this is one of the most direct and honest public conversations that a high-ranking Ukrainian officer has had during the war. Krotevych, who led the headquarters of the "Azov" regiment during the battles in Mariupol, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, has become a symbol of the resilience of the Ukrainian resistance.