Police uncovered posts about his “dissatisfaction with the system in Ukraine.”
Local Ukrainian police say a man armed with a firearm and possibly explosives has locked himself in a bus with about 20 people on board in the northwestern city of Lutsk in Ukraine.
A statement from the local police says that the police are on the scene.
Ukrainian media reported that the police received an emergency call saying that a man with a pistol and explosives had seized the bus and that several shots were heard before.
Police are reportedly negotiating with the man over the phone.
A report in the national newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda says that the police have found online publications of the man where he writes about his “dissatisfaction with the system in Ukraine”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commented that the hostage called it “alarming” and said that the police are doing everything possible to resolve it without victims.
Zelenskiy on his official Telegram account said that he was taking the situation under his personal control. He repeated reports that there may have been some shots already, writing that “shots were heard” and that the bus was “damaged.”
“Everything is being done so that the situation is resolved without victims. I am following events under my personal control, ”he wrote.
Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook that Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov traveled to Lutsk to monitor the situation.
Gerashchenko confirmed that around 20 people have been taken hostage on the bus.
The hijacker has said that he is armed and that the bus is ready to explode. Negotiations are ongoing.
Gerashchenko wrote that the kidnapper forced the hostages to call the police at 9:25 am local time and introduced himself as “Maksim Plokhoi” – “Plokhoi” in Russian means “bad”.
Gerashchenko writes that on the Internet they found a book by a “Maksim Plokhoi” called “Philosophy of a criminal”.
.
