Armed hijacking of bus in Ukraine ended after president steps in
Russian-born gunman lets passengers go after nation is urged to watch 2005 film on animal rights
A FORMER convict took two dozen people hostage on a bus in north-western Ukraine yesterday, releasing hostages last night after the Ukrainian president recorded a video urging people to watch an animal rights film.
The drama in the city of Lutsk began in the morning when emergency services received a call from a man who said he had hijacked a bus and taken about 20 people hostage. The hostage taker has been identified as Russianborn
Maxym Kryvosh, who has spent a decade in prison after he was convicted on a host of charges including armed robbery and illegal possession of weapons. He was identified as an animal-rights volunteer.
More than 12 hours after Kryvosh boarded the bus and took its passengers hostage, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, posted a video on social media telling people to watch Earthlings, an animal rights film made in 2005 and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. Shortly afterwards, all the hostages were freed.
Negotiations between police and Kryvosh, who was believed to be armed with weapons and explosives, were interrupted by gunfire from the bus and several blasts just outside the vehicle. Police surrounded the whiteand-blue bus parked in the town’s central square, and troops and armoured personnel carriers were at the scene.
Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister, had said that law enforcement officers were “in constant contact” with the gunman and his family.
“We’re using all means to resolve this situation peacefully,” he said.
Several hours before the bus was hijacked, Kryvosh uploaded a video of himself, dressed in black and holding an assault weapon, saying that he stands “against the system”.
The gunman demanded that top Ukrainian officials publicly admit that they were “terrorists”.
Hopes of a quick resolution evaporated in the evening when Kryvosh reportedly refused to speak to his wife, who authorities brought in to help the negotiations. Later, a man tried to break the police line and get to the bus, yelling “My wife is there.”
Details of the passengers were scarce but Kryvosh said in a phone call broadcast on Ukraine’s NTA TV channel that there was a pregnant woman and an injured person on the bus.
Meanwhile, reports from Kryvosh’s home town in the Rivne region painted a conflicting picture.
In the regional capital of Rivne, Alla Losyk, an animal right activist, identified the man as a volunteer who had been helping them for the past five years.
“Everyone is shocked,” Ms Losyk said, adding that Kryvosh had never been aggressive but “always polite and reserved”.