Arestovich: strike on Vyshneве hit warehouses storing military products

Former adviser to the Office of the President Alexei Arestovich suggested in his Telegram channel that Russia struck warehouses containing military products in the city of Vyshneve in Kyiv Oblast, commenting on the explosions and large-scale detonations in the settlement.

In Arestovich’s view, one of the causes of such strikes is information leaks. According to him, “everyone in Ukraine talks,” which is why Russian intelligence has “no particular difficulty obtaining and correctly assessing information and preparing targeting data.”

Arestovich also criticized the approach of Ukrainian authorities to building military infrastructure. He claimed that the state invests insufficiently in the construction of protected warehouses and other facilities, as a result of which ammunition may be stored in locations that pose a threat to the civilian population. He noted that Ukraine and Russia, unlike Iran, do not invest in underground storage systems for strategically important materials.

Arestovich links the reason for this state of affairs on Ukraine’s part to Zelensky’s policy:

“Zelensky has a clear directive — to spend as little of our own money on the war as possible. He sincerely believes that ‘…the West allowed the war, this is a dispute between Russia and the West, the West must pay.’ As a result, a huge number of things that should be done in wartime are not being done. This applies in particular to the proper strategic preparation of the theater of operations (meaning all of Ukraine) with regard to the safe production and storage of weapons and military equipment. This involves enormous sums of money, an enormous volume of work that is difficult to conceal, and uncertain effectiveness. So, for lack of the proper paper, they write on whatever is at hand — and then ‘…entire streets disappear in Vyshneve,'” — the former adviser believes.

In addition, Arestovich pointed to the legal dimension of the problem: according to him, “placing military facilities, stockpiles, and the like among civilians can in general constitute a war crime and is prohibited by the Geneva Convention.” He cited Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions, specifically Article 58, which obliges parties to a conflict to take measures to protect the civilian population from the effects of military operations.

As a concrete solution for Kyiv, Arestovich proposed using the metro system. “Having a deep-level metro in Kyiv and storing things out in the open — one would truly need a strategic mind for that,” he wrote.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the security services to investigate the causes of what happened in Vyshneve.