Altered Video by Belorussian СБ ТВ Disseminated by Georgian Pro-Governmental and Kremlin Media

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Reading Time: 11 minutes

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On February 24th, 2023, a video under the name “Unknown World News” was published on the Facebook page “i ucnobi“, which featured a video segment of the discussion between former adviser of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksii Arestovych, and Russian lawyer and human rights activist, Mark Feygin. The following comment by Arestovych dubbed in the Georgian language is attached to the video footage:

Arestovych: “Ukraine does not have and will not have the resources to defeat the Russian army. Even if it had a NATO-trained army and its weapons, which we do not have and will not have in the near future. Unfortunately, the way out of the war may not be what Ukrainians expect. Half a year ago, we thought differently. Will it be next year? Of course, it won’t. The West and the US are preparing Ukraine for partition, similar to North and South Korea, but I hope for more – we will lose Luhansk and Donetsk, but the Americans estimate that our share will be more than Russia’s.”

On February 25th, the aforementioned quote was published by pro-governmental TV Imedi (1,2,3), Rustavi 2, POSTV, Marshall Press, For.ge, info9, as well as pro-Kremlin media outlets (Alt-Info, Obieqtivi, SplitNews) and various online platforms (Progressnews) and Facebook pages (1,2,3). It should be noted that the video used in the article published on the Imedinews website is the same that was published on the Facebook page of “i ucnobi”; however, the story published on February 25th at 17:00, uses another video of Arestovych with Russian subtitles; The video is dubbed in Georgian, and the quote is identical to what was published by the outlets and Facebook pages mentioned above.

The quote in the name of Arestovych distributed in the Georgian media is based on the version published by the Belarusian SB TV, which cut and edited Arestovych’s quotes in a way that changed its meaning. The former adviser of the office of the President of Ukraine did not say that the West is preparing for the division of Ukraine. He spoke about the readiness of the West to create a situation where Ukraine’s military positions would be strengthened, and Russia’s would be weakened, which would allow Ukraine to engage in future negotiations from a position of strength. The word division (раздел) in relation to the West appears only in the subtitles aired by the Belarusian channel, while Arestovych himself uses the word размен (exchange) during the discussion. Arestovych’s statement, which was edited by the Belarusian channel, was made not during the interview with Feygin, but during another discussion.

  • How did the Belarusian СБ ТВ alter the words of Arestovch?

On February 3rd, Arestovich spoke about the issues raised in the circulated quote in a long discussion with Yuri Romanenko, Ilya Kusa and Nikolai Feldman.

A video clip cut from this very discussion was used in Imedi’s 17:00 newscast, although the same video was broadcast by the Belarusian propaganda channel СБ TV as early as two weeks ago. This is confirmed by the vertical format of the video and the identical Russian-language subtitle. The same information was published on the website of the media outlet.

The video distributed by the Belarusian media is the result of manipulative editing – during the extensive discussion on February 3, short phrases from Arestovych’s conversation are cut out and inconsistently edited, which creates the wrong context of the discussion. Changing the content of Arestovych’s speech is also confirmed by the fact that the accompanying subtitles and the audio recording do not match each other in some cases. The quote disseminated by the Georgian media conveys the content of the manipulated version of the video.

The Russian-language subtitle of the video published by the Belarusian channel The translation of the video and subtitle published by the Belarusian channel The quote distributed by Georgian media outlets
Арестович: Всё равно звучит что? Переговоры.

Собеседник Арестовича: Конечно.

Арестович: Потому что все понимают что нет у Украины

ресурсов [резка]

Арестович: Тысеч читирсто идеально подготовленных вышколенного, вооружённых с ног до головы натовским оружием войска чтобы всерьез это перемолоть освободить всю территорию – оно у нас есть? Нет. В ближайший год будет? Не будет. Поэтому, выход из этой войны он может быть совсем не таким как нам всем казалось еще полгода назад. [резка]

Титр во время этого сегмента: Нет и не будет у Украины ресурсов выбить армию России.

Арестович: Самое неприятное что судя по этим докладам рентам и оговоркам высшего военно-политического руководства Запада и они что-то такое думают заразу [резка]

Титр во время этого сегмента: Выход из войны может быть не таким, как ждут украинцы 

Арестович: Американцы и Запад прекрасно понимают к чему идёт, они готовят, по моей оценке, они готовят вот этот размер мы теряем – немножко Донецка и Луганска. Ну потому что 200.000 останавливает мы устанем. Конечно придётся отодвинуться, мы же это понимаем [резка]

Титр во время этого сегмента: Американцы и Запад готовят размен (раздел) Украины.

Арестович: Вся надежда нашей страны, американской стороны идёт на то что наша доля, наш размен будет больше чем российский [резка]

Титр во время этого сегмента: Вариант Северной и Южной Корей. Но надеюсь на большую часть.

Арестович: Ну вот условно говоря сценарии двух Корее Что делать с западом нужно делать в Южную Корею. Правильно  [резка]

Arestovych: What can be heard? Negotiations.

Co-speaker: Of course

Arestovych: Because everyone understands that Ukraine has no resources. [Cut]

Arestovych: 400,000 perfectly trained troops armed from head to toe with NATO weapons to seriously turn this around and liberate our territories – do we have it? No. Will we have it in the coming year? We won’t have it. Therefore, the solution to this war may not be as it seemed half a year ago [Cut].

Subtitle during the segment: Ukraine does not have and will not have the resources to drive out the Russian army.

Arestovych: Most disturbingly, according to the Rand report, and according to the remarks of the top military-political leadership of the West, they think something like this. [Cut]

Subtitle during the segment: The way out of the war may not be what Ukrainians expect.

Arestovych: The Americans and the West understand perfectly where this is going; they, in my estimation, are preparing such an exchange – we lose a little in Donetsk and Luhansk because we will be tired with 200,000 stops, of course, we would have to retreat, we understand that [Cut]

Subtitle during the segment: The West and the US are preparing Ukraine for partition (division)

Arestovych: The whole hope of our side, the American side, is that our share of the exchange will be more than the Russian one  [Cut]

Subtitle during the segment: The variant of North and South Korea, but I hope for a bigger share.

Arestovych: Assuming a two-Korea scenario, what should the West do? It should do South Korea, right?

Ukraine does not have and will not have the resources to defeat the Russian army.

Even if it had a NATO-trained army and its weapons, which we do not have and will not have in the near future. Unfortunately, the way out of the war may not be what Ukrainians expect. Half a year ago, we thought differently.  Will it be next year? Of course, it won’t.  The West and the US are preparing Ukraine for partition, similar to North and South Korea, but I hope for more – we will lose Luhansk and Donetsk, but the Americans estimate that our share will be more than Russia’s.

As it turns out, the quote disseminated by the Georgian media is a mixture of Arestovych’s phrases and subtitles attached to the manipulative video by the Belarusian media. An important detail should be emphasized: when Arestovych mentions the plan of the Americans and the West, he says the word размен (exchange), which the Belarusian media changed with the word размен (division) in the title, and the Georgian media accordingly translated it as division. The use of the word раздел completely changes the context.

  • What did Arestovych say in reality?

One of the issues Arestovych discussed with Yuri Romanenko, Ilya Kusa and Nikolai Feldman is the transformation of political goals into military goals, Russia’s position on negotiations, and the legend that Russian rule creates for its population. This segment of the discussion starts at 01:24:14. Arestovych discusses the current events in Ukraine from the point of view of Russia. He explains that Russia has reached an impasse, which has changed its goals in the war and made it more realistic. Arestovych believes that the Russian military leaders, and in particular the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, managed to explain to Putin that the complete conquest of Ukraine is impossible. Accordingly, considering the existing military resources of Russia, Gerasimov offered Putin the following scenario: Russia occupies Luhansk, and the so-called LNR is completely under the control of Russia, and the so-called DNR is partially under it. Arestovych explains that Russia will be able to portray such a development as a success and make people believe that the goals have been achieved, and this will also allow Russia to speak from a position of strength during the negotiations. Accordingly, speaking from Russia’s position, Arestovych emphasizes that the main thing is, firstly, to fulfil this goal, and secondly, not to allow Ukraine to break through the front in the southern direction, to recapture Melitopol and expel the Russians from Crimea – this will be a big blow for Russia. Success in Donbas and protection of the southern direction – this is the best position for negotiations for Russia, and according to Arestovych, Gerasimov promises Putin this: the best position for negotiations. Arestovich also notes that the opposite development of events weakens Russia’s position because Russia has no more resources for the war; the war will not end, it will go into a passive phase. Arestovych notes that the West understands the danger of moving into a passive phase of the war and is therefore trying to help Ukraine get into a strong position for negotiations. In the scenario described by Arestovich, Ukraine’s military success in the direction of Melitopol-Crimea will create an opportunity to enter such a position. It is in connection with this issue that Arestovych notes that the West is preparing for a scenario where Ukraine will have significant success, even at the cost of retreating in the direction of Donbas. When Arestovych talks about the exchange, he does not mean giving up the territory of Ukraine to Russia; he is talking about rearranging Ukraine’s military priorities.

Oleksii Arestovych: “The Americans and the West understand perfectly where this is going [to the passive phase of the war]; The Americans and the West understand perfectly where this is going; they, in my estimation, are preparing such an exchange – we lose a little in Donetsk and Luhansk because we will be tired with 200,000 stops, of course, we would have to retreat a little, we understand that. The question here is to what extent? Let’s hope that we will withdraw by minimum; this is the blood of our troops, it’s all very heavy, etc. But we will break through the southern front as well. That’s the direction everything goes, or somewhere else; you never know, and we get major success. And in terms of exchange, the main hope of the American side is that our share, the result of our exchange, will be more than that of Russia – that is, we enter the negotiations from a position of strength. And if we listen carefully to all their [Western] remarks, they all say: we must secure the best positions for negotiations. Especially in recent days. These positions must be secured by force. Stoltenberg, all the representatives, they say: the best, the best positions, but what do you hear? But what is heard anyway? negotiations.”

Arestovych points out that Ukraine does not have the resources to continue the war for a long time and to completely expel the Russians from the territory of Ukraine by military means, because Russia can still mobilize poorly trained but large numbers of manpower for a long time, and the West can take years to create the necessary resources for Ukraine. That is why Arestovych points out that the outcome of the war may not be what the majority of the Ukrainian population expects at this stage – the liberation of the entire territory by military force. It should be noted that Arestovych also mentioned that Russia does not have the resources to continue the active phase of the war for years.

It is worth noting that when discussing such a possible development of events, Arestovych notes that he considers the issue as Russia’s expectations, describing how the Russian side thinks.

Oleksii Arestovych: “I see this as Russia’s expectations. Can we discuss Russia’s expectations? Their plans, their devious plans. These are not Arestovych’s expectations, Arestovych describes how the Russian side thinks.”

  • The Korean scenario

As for the Korean scenario and the division of Ukraine like Korea, this issue was raised several times during the discussion. It should be noted that for Arestovych, the division of Ukraine on the “38th parallel” is the most pessimistic scenario of the development of events. In this scenario, Ukraine does not achieve success in the direction of Melitopol and Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhia region remains occupied, and the conflict goes into a passive phase; the front line returns to the situation it was in 2016-2020, the fight with Russia is going on at the economic, diplomatic, and informational levels. Some countries are starting to adjust their relations with Russia. In the Korean scenario, although he goes through the most pessimistic options, Arestovych sees positives in the precedent of South Korea’s existence. In this regard, he notes that, conditionally, if the Korean scenario takes place, South Korea should be created from Western Ukraine, which will be a very important part of the country.

Discussing the most pessimistic scenario, Arestovych notes that he is still optimistic, and even in this case, Ukraine has a real chance of joining NATO or getting security guarantees close to NATO. According to him, even the most pessimists in the West admit that security guarantees for Ukraine are necessary, and these guarantees will be such that after this war, another Russian attack on Ukraine will be excluded.

Notably, the discussion took place live, and one of the viewers asked if the participants of the discussion were preparing people for defeat. To which Yuri Romanenko pointed out that the Korean scenario is not equal to defeat and noted that after a few decades, South Korea has become an advanced state, and no one wants to live in North Korea. And Arestovych emphasized that now the West is preparing Ukraine for a counterattack, not for defeat.

Oleksii Arestovych: “Even during the local discussion, within half a year, the West is directly, unconditionally, already in all open ways, preparing Ukraine for a powerful counterattack, which should level the possible success achieved as a result of Russia’s current big offensive and put Ukraine in a strong position and Russia in a weak one at the negotiations. What else should be in this situation? What kind of failure are you talking about?”

According to Arestovych, in recent years, he has become convinced that politicians in big politics say what they think and we should largely believe them – and Western leaders say that Ukraine should not be defeated and be in a strong position in negotiations – this is the most they can provide.

  • Arestovych did not make the disseminated statement during the interview with Feygin

It should be noted that during the interview with Feygin on February 23rd, a section of which was shown in the program of “i ucnobi”, Arestovych does not say the popular quote, nor does he refer to the issues raised in this quote. The fact that the video distributed by “i ucnobi” is cut from the February 23 interview is confirmed by the ticker tape during the video fragment: “Жена джихадиста” Шамима Бегум проиграла апелляцию по делу о лишнии ее бритингорго граднаства.”


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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Topic: Politics
Country: Russia, Ukraine
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