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| Ukraine bus standoff: Hostages freed after PRESIDENT fulfills gunman’s bizarre request | Ukraine bus standoff: Hostages freed after PRESIDENT fulfills gunman’s bizarre request |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| The gunman who took some 20 people hostage in a western Ukrainian city has freed them after President Volodymyr Zelensky fulfilled his rather strange wish. | The gunman who took some 20 people hostage in a western Ukrainian city has freed them after President Volodymyr Zelensky fulfilled his rather strange wish. |
| Giving in to the gunman’s demands, Zelensky has recorded a short video address and released it online. By then, the hostage situation in the city of Lutsk had been unfolding for more than nine hours. | Giving in to the gunman’s demands, Zelensky has recorded a short video address and released it online. By then, the hostage situation in the city of Lutsk had been unfolding for more than nine hours. |
| “The film ‘Earthlings’, 2005. Must watch, everyone,” the president says in the clip – exactly as the hostage-taker requested. | “The film ‘Earthlings’, 2005. Must watch, everyone,” the president says in the clip – exactly as the hostage-taker requested. |
| While giving in to terrorist’s demands might be a controversial tactic, it seemed to have worked this time. Shortly after Zelensky’s address, the gunman released three of his hostages, handing them over to the deputy head of national police. Shortly afterwards, he apparently let the rest of the people go. | |
| Footage showed Ukrainian police detaining the suspect after tackling him to the ground. | Footage showed Ukrainian police detaining the suspect after tackling him to the ground. |
| The bus standoff began early on Tuesday, when the man, identified as Maksim Krivosh, 44, entered the vehicle armed with a gun and explosive devices. Some 20 people were inside at the time. | |
| The hostage taker called the police shortly after capturing the bus, introducing himself as Maksim Plokhoy (The Bad). He also rolled out demands to top Ukrainian officials, telling them to film videos of themselves acknowledging they were “terrorists under law” and called upon the president to ‘promote’ the animal cruelty documentary from 2005. | |
| Ukrainian police say the suspect had spent over 10 years behind bars for assorted crimes. These included fraud, robbery, extortion and illegal firearms possession, according to Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko. | |
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