- Oliver Slough
- BBC News
image copyright GettyImages
Ukraine’s presidential advisor Oleksiy Aristovich has tendered his resignation after he pointed out that Kyiv had shot down a Russian missile that hit a building in Dnipro, killing 44 people.
Aristovic apologized and said he had made a “fundamental mistake”.
The original comment sparked widespread outrage in the country, and Russian officials used it to pin the blame on Ukraine.
The consultant is a well-known figure for his daily YouTube updates, which are watched by millions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not yet commented on Aristovich’s decision to resign. It is not known whether the advisor made his decision under pressure, or out of personal conviction.
Hours after Saturday’s missile attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, Aristovich initially said it appeared the Russian missile had hit the building after it was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
Ukraine said that the building was hit by a Russian “KH-22” missile, and it does not have the ability to shoot it down, and it is said to be very inaccurate.
image copyright GettyImages
Ukrainians reacted angrily to Aristovich’s initial comments, with some accusing him of bolstering the Russians’ position. Some members of the Verkhovna Rada signed a petition calling for his removal from his position as a government official.
For his part, Aristovich wrote in a post on Telegram, “I offer my sincere apologies to the victims, their relatives, the residents of Dnipro and everyone who was deeply hurt by my prematurely false account of why the Russian missile hit a residential building.”
Aristovich is one of the most visible Ukrainian faces in the war, using his YouTube channel to conduct daily discussions about issues related to the conflict. The channel has more than 1.6 million subscribers, and his videos often get more than 200,000 views. Unlike other Ukrainian officials, he speaks Russian instead of Ukrainian.
Before submitting his resignation, Russian officials used his statements to blame Kyiv for the bombing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian strikes “do not hit residential buildings” and suggested that they were caused by Ukrainian air defenses, a conclusion he said was also reached by “some representatives of the Ukrainian side”.
Ukrainian officials have said so far that at least 44 people have been killed in Saturday’s raids, several more are missing, and that there is “little” chance of finding others alive.
On Saturday, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa were attacked, which Moscow said targeted Ukraine’s military and energy infrastructure.