Arestovich spent his life pretending to be a military leader, and due to his negligence, the top sniper instructor, Serge Marko, lost his life.

I see Facebook is blowing up over Arestovych's words. Have you all forgotten what happened with Marine Zhuravlev? When Arestovych criticized the actions of the deceased, claiming he was in a worse situation? (Which is untrue). Such a thing has never happened before, and here we are again.

Alright, let’s analyze who this powerful military figure is that dictates how one should die.

Arestovych indeed graduated from a military university, though he largely ignored his studies to hang out more in the theater. However, this later allowed him to address those who fought with the phrase: "As an officer, I’m telling you as an officer..."

When the war began in 2014, he did not join the army, which earned him much criticism. Before the war, he portrayed himself as a true soldier on social media, but when it came time for the draft, he was dodging the military.

Arestovych reached out to the Right Sector (Medved) to get them to vouch for him. Marusya, Medved, and Arestovych made a post saying, "No, Arestovych is not a coward running from the draft; he’s a volunteer in the Right Sector" (this is a loose interpretation of what was said in the post, as he likely had no official ties to the Right Sector).

It’s clear he faced backlash for such a presentation; everyone understood. And no, this is not a critique of the "Medveds" themselves; these right-wing guys are cool, and they did well later in the 79th brigade, but that’s another story without Arestovych's involvement.

In 2018, he sought a position in the 72nd brigade. Lacking any experience, he received a fairly high staff position — assistant to the brigade commander for intelligence.

This was a completely rear position, with no combat outings; it’s all a lie that Arestovych participated in reconnaissance missions. He couldn’t have, as military personnel of such a rank do not go on raids.

By the way, in the Armed Forces at that time, contracts for officers were signed for three years, but Arestovych's was for one year. Not because he negotiated, but because he got lucky.

Life in the 72nd brigade's headquarters was dull, so sometimes Arestovych tagged along with groups working in the brigade’s sector. He would sit in a trench behind the lines, observing how real soldiers worked — that’s what Arestovych sometimes did. Because he has absolutely no skills that would help in combat. He doesn’t know anything about sapper work, he can’t shoot, he can’t walk; according to those he clung to, the only thing Alexey did on these outings was talk. The level of seriousness was high.

During one of these moments, snipers arrived to work with the 72nd brigade, one of whom was the best instructor from all sniper schools: Roman Selikhov.

Arestovych took it upon himself to organize an outing for these snipers because, hey, cool guys have come, let’s hang out!

As a result, the group entered a position that had been previously mined by the enemy (and there was information about this; Arestovych just didn’t know, even though it was his functional duty). Roma Selikhov died from a detonation of an OZM mine.

Yes, the very OZM that Arestovych bragged about surviving.

How did Arestovych survive?

Very simply. He was behind, on the withdrawal, at a safe distance. Like a true scout.

In general, there’s a practice where scouts from a known sector lead snipers to a position (because a sniper may not know the area, and the scout guides him to the point, providing work coordinates and azimuths, checking the area for mines, effectively guarding the snipers working from a distance, as they are helpless up close).

Arestovych was the first to do everything the opposite way, disarming a mine for a sniper he was supposed to guide to the point. A soldier from the 72nd brigade with the call sign Poltava also died that day. The second sniper survived by a miracle, having sustained injuries.

This is how the best sniper instructor perished.

After that, there was an uproar in the 72nd brigade because why on earth was the assistant to the brigade commander involved in an outing without a combat order and so on? Why was there such utter idiocy in planning the outing that led to the deaths of soldiers?

They terminated Arestovych's contract; as far as I know, he served only 10 months. He was exonerated from any legal consequences; according to the investigation, Arestovych was not at the site of the soldiers' deaths. Everyone turned a blind eye.

After that, stories about the OZM from which he miraculously survived emerged, along with tales of "33 combat outings."

In fact, Arestovych should have remained silent about this story because if it were to be investigated impartially, he would be imprisoned. But he’s not the type to keep quiet.

So here we are. A man who has spent his entire life pretending to be military, who possesses absolutely no military skills, despite having been in the war for 10 years, came to the Armed Forces only by "negotiating" a convenient position, got involved in combat operations that resulted in the deaths of valuable specialists, and then lied about those events — has no right to dictate how others should die.

In fact, when Alexey returns to Ukraine (and he will), there are many military personnel who would like to have a live conversation with the "yaruski".

Even since the days he criticized Zhuravlev, who, when wounded, chose not to surrender but to crawl back to his own, even though the separatists were closer.