Oleksiy Arestovych, the adviser to the President of Ukraine, who made erroneous assumptions about the missile strike in Dnipro, has resigned, the BBC reports.
Arestovych apologized and said that he made a serious mistake. His remark that a building in Dnipro was destroyed by a missile shot down by Ukrainians caused a widespread public reaction and was also used by Russian propaganda.
The former presidential adviser later published a letter in which he announced his resignation and stated that he had made a serious mistake:
«I offer my sincere apologies to the victims and their relatives, the residents of Dnipro, and everyone who was deeply hurt by my prematurely erroneous version of the reason for the Russian missile striking a residential building.»
Arestovych initially said it appeared to be a Russian-launched missile intercepted by Ukrainian forces. His live broadcasts on YouTube are watched by thousands of people every time, and thus this announcement caused a wide resonance among the public. It was also used by Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia did not target residential buildings and assumed that the tragedy was caused by the Ukrainian air defense forces, adding that officials on the Ukrainian side also came to this conclusion.
The armed forces of Ukraine, in turn, indicated that a Soviet-era Kh-22 missile hit the building, which they have no technical means of intercepting, moreover, these missiles are characterized by low accuracy.
Arestovych is one of Ukraine’s most visible public figures during the war, and his YouTube channel has more than 1,6 million subscribers and more than 200,000 views per broadcast.
Ukraine reports that 44 people were killed in the strike in Dnipro, and several are still unaccounted for. There is practically no chance of finding survivors.
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