Controversial ex-adviser to Zelensky's office hit with Russian international arrest warrant
Russia issued an international arrest warrant for Oleksiy Arestovych, a former freelance adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Oct. 7.
Russian authorities have accused Arestovych of terrorism and spreading "fake news about the Russian army." In February 2024, a Russian court ordered his detention in absentia as part of the same case.
Russia's financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring earlier added him to its "list of terrorists and extremists."
Moscow placed the ex-adviser on the wanted list a day after Arestovych gave an interview to Russian propagandist Ksenia Sobchak, where he made a series of controversial remarks that drew widespread condemnation in Ukraine.
Arestovych, who resigned in January 2023 after falsely claiming a Ukrainian air defense missile caused the deadly Dnipro apartment strike, has since recast himself as a government critic.
Zelensky sanctioned him in May 2025, along with several pro-Kremlin figures.
During his Oct. 6 interview with Sobchak, Arestovych said he would consider making territorial concessions to Russia, including giving up the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, as well as occupied Crimea, in exchange for peace.
Russia illegally declared the annexation of the four oblasts following sham referenda in late 2022 — a move that holds no weight internationally.
The former adviser also said he would abandon Ukraine's pursuit of NATO and EU membership, prosecute Zelensky as a "war criminal" if he became president, and claimed there is an "extreme form of nationalism in Ukraine that is close to Nazism."
His remarks were condemned by Ukrainian civil society groups as echoing Kremlin narratives. Critics accused him of promoting Russian propaganda and undermining Ukraine's sovereignty.
Even the Kremlin dismissed his remarks. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Oct. 7 that "Arestovych does not represent the official position of the Ukrainian authorities."
Sobchak, a former presidential candidate and the rumored goddaughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who portrays herself as an independent journalist, is generally seen as aligned with the Kremlin.
During the early stages of Russia's war against Ukraine, Arestovych was known for daily wartime briefings that aimed to inform the public about battlefield developments.
