A man armed with a rifle and grenades hijacked a bus with 13 people on board Tuesday morning, claiming that he had placed explosives in the vehicle and at another remote location, which could be detonated remotely, according to security officials.
The man, identified by authorities as Maksym Kryvosh, 44, and who used the nickname Maxim the Bad, posted a “anti-system” manifesto on social media, demanding that dozens of government officials admit to being “terrorists,” among others. stuff.
Zelensky spoke directly to the kidnapper by phone, which resulted in the release of three hostages, his press office said. Others were released after the Ukrainian president posted a short video on his official Facebook page that read: “Everyone watches the 2005 movie ‘Earthlings’.”
The documentary, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, deals with the abuse and suffering of animals in industrial agriculture. Zelensky’s video was removed after Krivosh surrendered and the hostages were released. There were no reports of deaths or injuries.
Zelensky later thanked the police for the successful operation and justified his decision to comply with the kidnapper’s demands by saying in a Facebook post that “human life is the most important value and we lost no one.”
“The negotiations lasted approximately 9 hours, everyone talked to him, from psychologists to special negotiators, but he only wanted one thing, to fulfill his demands and to continue to threaten (people),” Zelensky said in a video posted by his office. press on Tuesday night.
“So we had some advice and he wanted to talk to this man. Before that, he talked to everyone for about 10-15 seconds and then he hung up, but then we managed to talk for 7-10 minutes and we came to an agreement that he will do. The first movement to free our citizens. “
On Tuesday afternoon, the Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said: “The film [Earthlings]… it’s a good one. But you don’t have to be so screwed up and cause so much terror across the country, you can only see it without all of that. “
On Wednesday, Kryvosh was charged with terrorism, hostage-taking and illegal possession of weapons, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Interior Ministry officials added that he had previously spent almost a decade in prison for fraud, extortion, the illegal sale of firearms and explosives.
Kryvosh will also undergo a mental health evaluation. CNN was unable to contact an attorney or representative for him, and it was not immediately clear if an attorney had been assigned to him.
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