Ukrainian authorities arrested a man on Tuesday who had taken more than a dozen hostages on a bus, ending a 12-hour clash with police, authorities said.
The 13 hostages on the bus were released unharmed. The suspect had initially released three of the hostages, including a pregnant woman, after negotiations with the deputy chief of the national police, Yevhen Koval.
A police officer brings water for the hostages held on a bus after a gunman took the long-distance bus and took 13 people hostage in Lutsk.
(Press office of the Ukrainian police through the AP)
During the confrontation, Koval had delivered water to the hostages. At one point, the assailant fired his weapon and a bullet missed Koval.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a short video message on his Facebook page urging Ukrainians to watch a movie, as the kidnapper had wanted.
Minutes later, the assailant turned himself in to police and authorities said the 13 hostages were released.
After the ordeal, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described the assailant as an “unstable man who invented his own world.”
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Police closed downtown Lutsk, about 250 miles west of Kiev, after the assailant, who the police say was armed and carrying explosives, took over the bus. The assailant threw explosives out of a bus window, but no one was injured. He also fired multiple shots at a police drone.
The man called police at 9:25 a.m. local time after taking control of the vehicle and introduced himself as Maksim Plokhoy, Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook.
According to Gerashchenko, the police identified the man as Maksim Krivosh, a 44-year-old Ukrainian born in Russia. Krivosh was reportedly convicted twice on a wide range of charges (robbery, fraud, illegal arms handling) and spent a total of 10 years behind bars.
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Local media report that Krivosh tried to communicate with journalists through hostages and their phones, demanding that they spread the word about their demands and that more journalists arrive on the scene.
Associated Press contributed to this report..
