A day-long hostage clash in Ukraine reportedly ended on Tuesday after the country’s president accepted a gunman’s demand and shared a video recommending a 2005 documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recommended the film in a video shared on Facebook after a man in the city of Lutsk took the bus and held 13 hostages for more than 12 hours, according to The Guardian.
The hostage situation began early Tuesday morning after Maksym Kryvosh, 44, opened fire and threw a grenade at a police drone. Kryvosh, armed with an automatic firearm and explosives, boarded a bus and told police he was taking 13 passengers hostage, ABC News reported. The man also claimed that he had manipulated the bus with explosives.
While negotiating with authorities, Kryvosh demanded that some government officials admit to being terrorists, among other things. He was said to be speaking to journalists and monitoring social media amid the confrontation before his account was deactivated.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian President’s office told The Guardian that Zelensky spoke to the gunman before he complied with his request to publicly recommend Earthlings, a film that focuses on the society’s use of animals for food, clothing and entertainment.
“The 2005 Earthlings movie. Everyone should see it,” Zelenskiy said in the video, according to an English translation.
With all the hostages free and the kidnapper in custody, President Zelensky has removed the Facebook video of himself complying with the gunman’s demand to promote the 2005 film Earthlings with the narration of Joaquin Phoenix. But here it is for posterity. pic.twitter.com/lPcHB8XD3H
– Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) July 21, 2020
The gunman surrendered in the late afternoon. None of the hostages was injured during the confrontation.
Zelensky removed the video from Facebook shortly after the hostage crisis ended. In a statement shared on Twitter, he congratulated “those who fought all day for the liberation of people in Lutsk and, indeed, for their lives.”
“We all experience and follow developments, we make plans and change them according to the situation. Human life is the most important value. We have not lost anyone,” he said.
Вітаю всіх, хто весь день боровся за звільнення людей у Луцьку й фактично – за їхні життя. Ми всі переживали й стежили за розвитком подій, напрацьовували плани та змінювали їх з оглядуана. Життя людини – найважливіша цінність. Ми не втратили нікого.
– Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 21, 2020
Kryvosh is a Russian-born animal rights activist who was previously convicted in Ukraine of fraud and illegal possession of weapons and explosives, according to reports.
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