A Moscow court has sentenced former adviser to the Ukrainian president's office Oleksiy Arestovych in absentia to 11 years in prison for incitement to terrorism and spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces, according to infohub.kz.
As RIA Novosti reported from the Second Western District Military Court, the judge announced the verdict: "By the totality of crimes, impose on Arestovych Oleksiy Mykolayovych the final punishment of 11 years of imprisonment." He will spend the first three years in prison, and the rest of the term in a general-regime penal colony. Additionally, the court banned him from administering websites and online channels for four years.
Arestovych has been placed on Russia's wanted list. The investigation established that on March 17, 2022, he published a video address on social media and video hosting platforms calling for the destruction of railways used to supply Russian troops. On April 8 of the same year, he posted false information online claiming that Russian servicemen had shelled the railway station in Kramatorsk, asserting that at least 33 people were killed and about 100 civilians were wounded.
Arestovych's actions were classified under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (public calls for terrorist activity using the internet) and Paragraph "d" of Part 2 of Article 207.3 (dissemination of deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces motivated by national hatred).
It is recalled that Arestovych served as an adviser to the Ukrainian president's office and left his post in early 2023 after a scandal involving a missile strike in Dnipro. He posted a photo of his resignation letter on social media and said he resigned due to a fundamental mistake he had made. In the fall of 2023, a criminal case was opened against him in Ukraine, and in 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on him.