Oleksii Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, has submitted a resignation letter amid a scandal over his recent Dnipro missile attack remark.
“I want to set an example of civilised behaviour: a principal mistake means resignation,” he wrote on Facebook.
Photo: Arestovych / Facebook
On 14 January, Russian troops launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukraine. A missile landed on an apartment building in central Ukraine’s Dnipro, causing its partial collapse. According to the latest reports, 40 people were killed, including three children. Moreover, 79 building residents were injured with 16 kids among them.
When discussing the tragedy, Arestovych said that the Russian missile struck the building after it was intercepted by a Ukrainian air-defence projectile. The Ukrainian General Staff refuted this claim. According to the agency, an X-22 missile exploded, while Ukraine’s current air-defence capabilities are unable to down these types of missiles.
Arestovych then landed in hot water over his comment, opposition members of the Ukrainian parliament launched a signature-collecting campaign to oust him from the official position. The adviser then apologised several times for sharing unverified information. Arestovych claimed that he was “radically exhausted” when he said that the missile could have been hit by a Ukrainian air-defence system.
