Kyiv

Ukrainian president’s advisor Oleksiy Arestovych on Tuesday resigned following an uproar over his remarks in which he suggested that the Russian missile that struck an apartment in Dnipro killing more than 40 civilians was shot down by Ukraine. 

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Arestovych announced his resignation on Facebook saying that he made a “fundamental error”. 

"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 wrote. 

After his remarks, the Ukrainian Air Force had to clarify that the apartment building was hit by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which Kyiv does not have the equipment to shoot down. 

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His remarks were exploited by Russian officials to blame Ukraine for the Dnipro disaster. While back at home, Arestovych was severely criticised. 

Arestovych is one of the most public Ukrainian faces of the war. He uses his YouTube channel to hold daily discussions on issues related to the conflict.  

The channel has more than 1.6 million subscribers, and his videos often have more than 200,000 views.  

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Russia and Belarus hold joint military drill

On Saturday, during his official presser, Arestovych seemed to suggest that the Ukrainian air defences could have been responsible by shooting down the Russian missile that struck the building, resulting in casualties

The comment caused furore with Dnipro Mayor Filatov urging that Ukrainian intelligence to discredit Arestovych's claim, while Ukrainian parliament deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko presented a collection of signatures demanding his resignation.   

Also read | Russia proposes 'major changes’ to boost capabilities of armed forces  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is yet to respond to this fiasco. 

Meanwhile, 22 people are still missing in Dnipro city, as the official toll increased to 44.

Also read | Wagner group commander seeks asylum in Norway claiming war crimes by the outfit 

"Twenty-two people are currently being sought," the state emergency services said, according to AFP news agency. 

Emergency services said municipal workers had removed more than 9,000 tonnes of construction debris and 41 damaged cars since the rescue work began on Saturday. 

(With inputs from agencies) 

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