Ukraine’s military chief ‘must go’, says commander who quit to speak out

Bohdan Krotevych said he had received orders ‘which I, in my good conscience, was unable to fulfil and follow’. Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

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.