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AFP
The man was arrested after a siege that lasted several hours.
A clash in Ukraine ended with security forces that released 13 hostages from a bus and detained the armed man after hours of talks, authorities say.
The images showed the gunman lying on the ground after his arrest in the city of Lutsk, while the video images showed the hostages leaving the bus.
The man had originally been holding 16 people, but released three shortly before officers moved out.
All hostages are said to be unharmed.
The man has been named by the police as Maksym Kryvosh, 44, who has previous convictions.
Police previously said they had been attacked and threw a grenade, although it did not explode.
One of the gunman’s demands was that top politicians declare that they are terrorists.
“Lutsk. Everyone’s fine,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov (in Russian) tweeted after the end of the siege.
Avakov was in Lutsk to direct negotiations with the gunman.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also held talks with the kidnapper, who his spokesman, Yuliya Mendel, said led to the release of the first three hostages.
Zelensky posted a short video on his Facebook page in which he said in Russian the words: “Everyone should see the 2005 movie Earthlings.” Another of the kidnapper’s demands had been for the president to encourage people to watch the documentary on animal rights made in Hollywood.
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EPA
The armed man released three of the hostages before the siege ended.
However, he deleted the video after the siege ended.
Previously, images from the scene showed officers from SBU’s anti-terror security services surrounding the bus. Police said they fired two shots at him and that the man claimed to have explosives as well.
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AFP
Kryvosh has multiple convictions for fraud and illegal weapon handling.
“The attacker threw a grenade from the bus, which, fortunately, did not detonate,” a statement said.
According to the attorney general’s office, the gunman said he had placed an explosive device in a public place in the city that could be remotely detonated.
Police cordoned off the city center and told residents not to leave their homes or offices.
It was unclear if any devices had been found.
Authorities said Kryvosh had previously spent around 10 years in prison on convictions including fraud and illegal weapon handling.
