No, it’s not an epileptic comedic episode from Borat or Saturday Night Live – it was very much real in the tense situation that happened in Lutsk, Ukraine: An armed gunman took hostage for hours without end of 13 innocent people in a bus for the goal of making the Ukrainian president make his people watch a movie.
Oh, and not just any movie: the 2005 documentary by Joaquin Phoenix, decrying animal abuse.
44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh, a.point 104 | k.point 106 | a.point 108 | Maxim the Bad posted an “anti-system” manifesto on social media, crying for the contemporary government officials to confess as being “terrorists” themselves, while going on about for lots of different agendas as well.point 318 |
.point 1 | He was claiming he had placed explosives in the vehicle and in another remote location, which he could detonate remotely, according to security officials.point 136 |
In the first hours of the siege, Kryvosh took aim at the police with his bullets and grenades, according to the Ukraine Interior Ministry.point 251 |
The National Police of Ukraine later said its specialists had managed to defuse the grenade and it didn’t explode.point 102 | 1
President Zelensky spoke directly to the hostage-taker via phone, resulting in the release of three hostages, the Ukrainian presidential press office said.point 134 | Others were released after the Ukrainian president posted a short video on his official Facebook page saying: “Everybody watch the 2005 film ‘Earthlings.point 277 |
'” Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, the movie advocates for humane treatment of animals.point 78 | President Zelensky’s video was deleted after the hostage issue was safely secured.point 155 | 1
Zelensky later thanked the police for the successful operation and justified his decision to meet the hostage-taker’s demands by saying in a Facebook post that “human life is the most important value and we did not lose anyone.point 463 |
The negotiations lasted for about 9 hours, everyone talked to him, from psychologists to special negotiators, but he wanted just one thing, his demands to be met, and kept threatening (the people),” Zelensky said at a later date.point 198 | “So we had a council and I wanted to speak to this man.point 249 |
Before that he spoke to everyone for about 10-15 seconds and then hung up but then we managed to talk for 7-10 minutes and reached an agreement that he will make the first move to release our citizens.point 164 | ”point 171 | 1
The Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov said, in a later press brief, with a rather sardonic air: “The film [Earthlings]… is a good one. But you don’t have to be so screwed up and cause such a terror for the entire country, you can just watch it without all that.”
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Replaced!