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An adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky has tendered his resignation, having said live on air that Ukrainian forces had shot down a Russian missile over the city of Dnepr before it reportedly then landed on an apartment block, killing dozens. The remark has landed Aleksey Arestovich in hot water, as commenters claimed he was blaming the Ukrainian military for the deaths, RT reported.

Arestovich shared his handwritten letter of resignation, addressed to Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s chief-of-staff, on Tuesday morning. He claimed he was showing “an example of civilized behavior” by leaving his position in the Ukrainian government. It was not immediately clear if his request has been accepted.

The presidential aide previously described his remark as “a serious mistake, made during a live broadcast.”

“The level of hate directed at me is incomparable with the consequences of the on-air mistake,” Arestovich said. He offered apologies to those “deeply hurt” but his words, but not “to the people who are spinning this issue.”

He previously claimed that he'd received a tip from an acquaintance, an experienced military expert, who said he'd heard a blast from an interceptor missile before the Russian missile hit the residential building in Dnepr on Saturday. He reported it during a YouTube interview the same day.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied having engaged the projectile and claimed that, in the first place, it didn’t have the capability to intercept Kh-22 air-launched cruise missiles. It claimed that its previous statements that some missiles of that model had been intercepted were “inaccurate.”