Azov’s intel chief “Gandalf” lays out Ukraine’s evolving war doctrine – from drone strikes to long-war reforms – and warns the West: Russia’s war is global.
by Katie Livingstone
July 16, 2025
Kyiv Post
The trees in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slovyansk still stand, casting broken shadows across the park where 31-year-old Illia “Gandalf” Samoilenko – an intelligence commander in Ukraine’s Azov Corps – sits quietly on a weathered bench. Nearby, trenches crisscross blackened fields. Occasional blasts of artillery are heard in the distance above the shattered remnants of homes that make up the broken skyline of a town at war.
Gandalf’s words are measured, precise – shaped not just by front line experience, but by a broader war of systems, signals, and psychology. The battlefield, for him, is as much digital and mental as it is physical – a layered war where speed, clarity, and control determine survival.
“Once I was a personality, now I’m a function,” Gandalf says plainly. “I have no future, I have no past. I have no name, no personality. I just perform a function,” he explains. “This function is to ensure that the war is done correctly. And when the war is done correctly, there will be victory.”
While the Kremlin calls for more peace talks, Kyiv has supported the West’s ceasefire plan for months – one Moscow keeps rejecting, much to Washington’s frustration.
That sense of disciplined detachment reflects a wider transformation taking place across Ukraine’s armed forces. Nowhere is this more visible than in Azov, which has evolved from a volunteer battalion into a professionalized corps driving some of the military’s most ambitious reforms.
Gandalf’s own shift – from individual identity to a role defined entirely by function – embodies that institutional change.
“I serve no purpose for myself – I have a purpose for society,” he says. “We serve the people, we serve the country, we serve the nation, and that’s our purpose.”
Originally from Kyiv, Gandalf studied history before joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2015 – a year after Russia seized Crimea and first invaded the Donbas. Within months of deploying to the front, he lost an eye and most of his left arm in battle.
Rather than stepping back, he returned to his unit with a titanium hook in place of a hand, his defiant presence earning him a mythic reputation among comrades and commanders alike.
His legend only grew in 2022, when Russian forces besieged the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol – the last Ukrainian stronghold in the devastated southern port city.
Gandalf was among those who held out for months underground before he was taken prisoner and held in brutal conditions for 120 days. The experience reshaped his view of the war, he said, and of himself.
“The only way to negotiate with Russia is by submitting them to our will, through the destruction of their offensive potential.”
Now, as an intelligence commander in one of Ukraine’s most reform-driven military corps, Gandalf is helping redefine how the war is fought – and won. He tracks patterns in drone footage, interprets shifts in Russian propaganda, and analyzes enemy movements before they unfold.
But his responsibilities extend beyond traditional military reconnaissance, incorporating economic indicators, enemy propaganda, and social media analysis. It’s a sophisticated, holistic approach to warfare reflecting Ukraine’s approach to Russia’s ever-changing hybrid battlefield tactics.
“Without modern ways of sourcing information, we will do a worse job,” Gandalf says. “We cannot just stick to the military ways of reconnaissance. We have to have the broader picture.”
As Russian airstrikes reach record intensity and high-stakes diplomacy unfolds among Washington, Moscow, and European capitals, Gandalf’s role epitomizes Ukraine’s evolving military doctrine.
That doctrine of function over ego mirrors Ukraine’s evolving battlespace strategy. Azov’s elevation to corps status has made it a laboratory for long-war thinking – where resilience, adaptability, and mission-focused leadership take precedence over hierarchy.
“We are people of our country, we are part of our nation,” he says. “And our nation is at war.”
That clarity of purpose extends to the battlefield itself, where intelligence, timing, and precision increasingly define Ukraine’s advantage. For Gandalf, the future of warfare is not in brute force but in this type of systems disruption – hitting the right target at the right moment with minimal losses.
This precision sharply contrasts with Russia’s indiscriminate bombardments, which have made the combat zone in Ukraine resemble “World War I on steroids,” he says. “Their military successes are not because they are better,” he explains. “It’s because of our mistakes – mistakes that can be corrected.”
Russia’s frontline tactics reveal a reliance on sheer mass rather than strategy or skill, the intel commander says. “They waste hundreds, thousands of troops just attempting an assault,” he says. “They’re preserving their precious military vehicles but sacrificing their people.”
Gandalf underscores what he sees as the real game changer behind Ukraine’s ability to keep resisting a much larger invading force after years of brutal attacks: structural reform.
Azov, which began as the 12th Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, was officially elevated to corps status in 2025 after over a decade of internal evolution, uniting five brigades under a single command.
The transition marked a significant leap in operational scale and strategic responsibility for the storied squad, from a frontline fighting force to a central node in Ukraine’s military reform.
Now operating as the First Azov Corps, Gandalf and his counterparts champion decentralization, empowering junior commanders with autonomy and faster decision-making. It’s a deliberate contrast to Russia’s rigid, top-down command structure, which Gandalf argues slows their response and increases their losses.
“With decentralized systems and a great focus on the sergeants, on the lower-level commanders, you will most likely be able to have better results, quicker, faster, and with fewer casualties,” he says.
The recon commander also harbors no illusions about Russia’s larger aims of conquering Ukraine. For Moscow, he says bluntly, discussions of alleged ceasefires are just pauses used by the Kremlin to build up its weapons stockpiles.
“Any negotiations with Russia, any political statements, any publications – it doesn’t mean anything,” he insists.
Gandalf knows this firsthand – he waited months for release as a POW, betrayed again and again by the Kremlin’s false promises of prisoner exchanges.
“This [diplomatic] paper means nothing, costs nothing,” he says. “The only way to negotiate with Russia [is] by submitting them to our will, through the destruction of their offensive potential, destroying 1,000 tanks more, 100,000 personnel more – that’s how you negotiate with Russia.”
To Western allies wavering in their support, Gandalf’s message is unequivocal: Ukraine’s fight is everyone’s fight. If the West views this as Ukraine’s war alone, Gandalf warns, you’ve already lost the intelligence war against Russia’s propaganda machine.
He invokes Sun Tzu’s timeless advice: “The officer should not be surprised by enemy actions, because he must predict the enemy actions.” For Gandalf, surprise signifies failure.
As Ukraine braces for more attacks – on the battlefield, in diplomatic halls, and in global perspectives – Gandalf’s approach reflects a deeper truth of this war: Victory isn’t about seizing territory alone; it’s about reshaping the battlefield to ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty is never again negotiable.
“Russia doesn’t stop where the maps end,” Gandalf says firmly. “It’s war is political, cultural, psychological – and global. Failing to see that now is failing to prepare.”
Katie Livingstone is an American journalist who has covered the war in Ukraine since 2022. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize among other awards and featured in Rolling Stone, Business Insider, USA Today, and several other outlets. She is a Fulbright Fellow whose work has focused on illuminating the impact of conflict and foreign policy on people and societies across the world.