An armed man who took more than a dozen hostages on a long-distance bus in Ukraine's western city of Lutsk on Tuesday fulfilled the agreement he had reached with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and released them shortly after Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to watch an animal rights documentary, the president said Wednesday.
Zelenskiy spoke to the hostage-taker for several minutes on Tuesday evening, the president's office said.
The assailant, identified by police as Maksim Krivosh, a 44-year-old Ukrainian born in Russia, seized the bus with 13 people on Tuesday morning, prompting a standoff with police in Lutsk, 400 kilometres west of the capital Kyiv. One of his demands was that Zelenskiy post a video message on the president's Facebook page urging Ukrainians to watch "Earthlings," a 2005 American documentary exposing humanity's cruel exploitation of animals.
Zelenskiy said Krivosh promised to release the others half an hour after the video was posted. "So it happened: In 30-40 minutes he released the hostages," the president said.According to authorities, Krivosh reportedly had been convicted twice on a range of charges -- robbery, fraud, illegal arms handling -- and spent a total of 10 years behind bars.Some of the released hostages told reporters that he treated them well and only asked them to remain calm.
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