The rise and fall of Oleksiy Arestovich

Oleksiy Arestovich is a name that has come to prominence in Ukraine since the start of the War. At this time he worked as Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine and was a key figure in the defence of Kyiv during the first months of the war for which he was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Oleksiy read briefings to the nation on national television insisting on the nations victory which saw his approval ratings soar to 88%, a rating only beaten by Zelenskiy. Arestovich is renowned for his accurate predictions, predicting the war with 2022 Russsia invasion in 2004 as well as his interesting biography. Arestovich worked as an actor just like Zelenskiy, who worked on comedy show Kvartal95, although their paths never crossed on the stage. He also lectures in psychology despite having no education in the field and frequently lectures on the topic of male female relationships. He has even created his own school for those interested in psychology. Although confessing to only have an intermediate level of English, Arestovich also has a diploma in military translation where he was taught how to translate military documents in english before going on to work in Intelligence for the Ukrainian army.

In terms of military biography, after the Euromaidan in 2014 he organised and trained soldiers who were going to fight in the Donbass called the ‘National Front’ and went to fight in the Donbass as a volunteer and then an Intelligence officer. Arestovich first became a Political Advisor to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko as part of the Ukraine delegation present during the drawing up of the Minsk Agreements signed in 2014, that agreed on a ceasefire in the Donbass. He recieved widespread criticism during his tenure due to his insistence on speaking Russian and giving voice to some pro Russian narratives. A few months after the agreements were signed he left his position and only returned to it under the next President, Zelenskiy, at the start of the war in 2022.

It was at this time that Arestovich’s reputation soared in Ukraine for his ability in radio and television briefings to calm the population, taking on a role of countering Russian propaganda on behalf of the president. He became initially adored for this in Ukrainian society with his face being printed on fridge magnets and bank notes as well as people evening putting his voice on their phones when it goes to voicemail, such was his influence on the population. Arestovich went on to later explain that he did not believe in the assurances he was giving the population at the time.

Arestovich’s reputation began to change after he spoke of his rejection of the idea of ‘collective responsibility’ for Russians, meaning that every Russian should be made to pay for the war that Putin is waging and that they are all responsible. This was something that was criticised by some aspects of Ukrainian society, wound up in negative emotion towards Russians at the beginning of the war . This reputation change ran in parallel with the war became so imbedded in Ukrainians lives that they stopped needing his dulcet calming tones over the radio and the demand for facts and reliable information became more important. Arestovich was repeatedly accused of not having reliable information and was just a source of speculation and guesswork, with him commenting that the active phase of the war would be over in “two to three weeks”. He was also accused of hyping up the topic of the war and making money off it, as it was revealed that he made tens of thousands of dollars from his Youtube live streams with Ukrainian journalist Mark Feigin.

Arestovich left his position as Advisor to Zelenskiy following the bombing of an apartment in Dnipro in January 2023 which he said could have been the result of Ukrainian anti-air defence knocking off course a Russian missile and not a Russian direct strike which it was later confirmed as being. He then went on to apologise to the Ukrainian public and the victims of the attack but blamed the mistake on him being ‘tired’ which further enraged the Ukrainian public as who viewed it as disrespect to those fighting on the frontline.

Arestovich has been labelled my many Ukrainians as a traitor for advocating for Zelenskiy to enter into negotiations with Russia and his frequent criticism of Zelenskiy notably his insistence on the return of captured Ukrainian territory and NATO membership which he insists will never happen. He also started to even praise the organisation of Russian armed forces commenting in an interview with Mark Feigin that war has ‘instead of ruining Russia, has revitalized it’ adding that the troops are ‘more organised and well prepared than at the beginning. ’ Famous Ukrainian bloggers such as Feigin and Dimitri Gordon stopped asking him for interviews and many members of the Ukrainian parliament asked for his arrest as soon as he returned to Ukraine.

Aswell as his view that Zelenskiy is waging a ‘personal war’ against him as a reason for him not returning to Ukraine, Arestovich declared in an interview with Russian journalist Katerina Gordeeva that he can’t return to fight because he believes that his whereabouts would be leaked to the Russians and he will be killed, even commenting that the Americans told him personally not to return to Ukraine because of this risk.

Arestovich is currently residing in America but has many times publically announced his desire to run for President in the next Ukraine elections. Despite his criticism of the Ukrainian leadership, Arestovich continues to donate money to the Ukrainian arms forces to the sum of 1.8 million dollars and despite the accusations of disinformation and scandalous comments, he does maintain a solid reputation in Ukraine as people have not forgotten the role he played in motivating Ukrainian soldiers and calming the population of the war.

Arestovich cuts an interesting figure in the Ukrainian political space due also to his consistent use of Russian whilst not being pro-Russian. The Russian language became synonymous with the invasion and killing of innocent civilians but Arestovich has attempted to reform the Russian language in Ukraine, not advocating for the destruction of monuments to famous Russian writers for example. He has said that whatever the outcome of the war, there will always be cultural and economic ties with Russia and that Ukraine’s task is to take the lead in this relationship and become the big brother and not the younger brother in the relationship. No one knows how long the war will go on for, but maybe there will be a demand for Arestoviches approach to Russia-Ukraine when it is over, maybe Arestovich will be the next president of Ukraine or maybe he will return and become, in his own words ‘a useless psychologist.’