Oleksii Arestovych

Oleksii Arestovych
Oleksii Mykolaiovych Arestovych (born 3 August 1975) is a blogger, actor, political and military columnist. He was a speaker of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine. He worked as a Strategic Communications Advisor of the Office of the President of Ukraine from December 2020 to January 2023.
Early life
Oleksii Arestovych was born in Dedoplistsqaro, Georgia. His father was a Belarusian Pole and mother a Russian from Voronezh Oblast, Arestovych spent a significant part of his childhood in Belarus. In 1992, he graduated from school No. 178 in Kyiv.
He entered the Faculty of Biology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. In 1993, Arestovych began to perform in the modern Kyiv studio theatre Black Square Theater, and left school.
He started conducting psychological seminars and trainings in 2000. In 2003, he entered the author's school "Man among People" by psychologist Absalom Podvodny, from which he graduated in 2010. He also studied theology at the Superior Institute of Religious Sciences of St. Thomas Aquinas.
He is an active blogger, with almost 200,000 followers on Facebook and more than 1.2 million (April 2022) on YouTube. Arestovych was among the top 100 bloggers in Ukraine in a poll published by Fakty ICTV in 2019.
Military career
Arestovych is a graduate of the Odesa Military Academy, he has a diploma of military translator. According to data that need further confirmation, from 1994 to 2005 he worked in the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and is a reserve lieutenant colonel.
Since 2014, he has been preparing combat units under the People's Reserve program, organizer of a charity fund to provide psychological support to the military in the Anti-terrorist Operation Zone (2014–2017).
From September 2018 to September 2019, he served in the Joint Forces Operation near Kramatorsk in the 72nd Mechanized Brigade as an intelligence officer.
Political career and positions
In 2005, Arestovych joined the far-right Brotherhood political party, led by Dmytro Korchynskyi. At the beginning of 2009, together with Korchynskyi, he organized the citizens' initiative "Get everyone out", the task of which was "to get the authorities to solve the main problems of small and medium-sized enterprises and the country's motor carriers".
In June 2009, he was appointed deputy head of the Prymorskyi District Administration of the Odesa City Council, but he was dismissed after three months at his own request.
On 28 October 2020, Arestovych was appointed by Leonid Kravchuk as Adviser on Information Policy and official speaker of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine at the Minsk talks on resolving the war in Donbas. On 1 December 2020, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak appointed Oleksiy Arestovych his freelance advisor on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense. Kravchuk, the head of the Trilateral Contact Group, noted that Arestovych's candidacy was chosen because of his military experience and the presence of a vision and position on issues that are the subject of the Trilateral Contact Group.
After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Arestovych became known for his 2019 prediction on the inevitability of a war with Russia. From the start of the invasion on 24 February 2022, he held daily briefings on the situation, as an adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. These videos garnered him a significant following.
He also held informal daily conversations covering the invasion on lawyer Mark Feygin's YouTube channel. On 13 August 2023 Feygin wrote on his Telegram channel that they will no longer hold their talks.
Arestovych is an organizer of psychological seminars and trainings and a charity fund for psychological support to the military.
In August 2022, Arestovych announced that he plans to run for the presidency of Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not run for a second term.
On 14 January 2023, Arestovych made an erroneous comment that a Russian Kh-22 missile had destroyed a multi-story residential building in Dnipro after being hit by a Ukrainian air defense counterattack. On 16 January 2023 Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Arestovych's 14 January explanation about what happened in Dnipro was plausible and put the blame for the destruction on the Ukrainian side. Following the outrage regarding Arestovich's comments, he apologized and resigned on 17 January 2023.
On 15 October 2023, he said that the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive has been a disaster. He also accused Volodymyr Zelensky and his military commanders of making strategic mistakes and failing to break Russian lines.
Television commentator on the theater of operations of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Criminal prosecution
Belarus
On 17 March 2022, the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus opened a criminal case against Oleksii Arestovych, under Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Belarus “for calls for terrorist attacks” at the facilities of the Belarusian Railway. On 27 July, Arestovych’s pages on social networks were included in the Belarusian list of extremist materials by decision of the Leninsky District Court of Mogilev.
Russia
On 11 May 2023, Rosfinmonitoring included Oleksii Arestovych on the list of terrorists and extremists. On 3 October 2023, Arestovych was put on the wanted list by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Ukraine
On 20 January 2022, Arestovych was listed as an "enemy of Ukraine" on the website Myrotvorets.
People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleh Dunda has demanded that Arestovych should be immediately arrested upon return to Ukraine due to his supposed "pro-Russian sentiment" when Oleksii was speaking at the Forum of Free Russia which took place in Tallinn on 1-2 October 2023.
Due to a complaint from People's Deputy of Ukraine Inna Sovsun, an investigation has been opened into Arestovych for comments that allegedly promoted violence against women in a video published on his YouTube channel on 25 September 2023.
Awards
Commemorative badge of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (July 2014)
Commemorative award of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs “Yevhen Berezniyak”
Medal of the Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces “For Special Service” (July 2019)
Distinction of the President of Ukraine “For participation in the anti-terrorist operation”
Breastplate “Badge of Honor” (May 2019)
Notes
References
External links
YouTube Channel
1975 births
Living people
People from Kakheti
Independent politicians in Ukraine
Ukrainian colonels
Ukrainian translators
Ukrainian YouTubers
Ukrainian people of Belarusian descent
Ukrainian people of Polish descent
Ukrainian people of Russian descent
Georgian people of Belarusian descent
Georgian people of Polish descent
Georgian people of Russian descent
Georgian people of Ukrainian descent
Expatriates from Georgia (country) in Belarus
Expatriates from Georgia (country) in Ukraine
Odesa Military Academy alumni
20th-century people from Georgia (country)
21st-century people from Georgia (country)
20th-century Ukrainian people
21st-century Ukrainian politicians
Propaganda in Ukraine