Lutsk Hostage Crisis
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On 21 July 2020, a hostage situation took place in
Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...
,
Volyn Oblast Volyn Oblast () or simply Volyn (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. It borders Rivne Oblast to the east, Lviv Oblast to the south, Poland to the west and Belarus to the north. Its Capital city ...
, Ukraine. Maksym Kryvosh seized a BAZ A079 bus and barricaded himself and 13 passengers inside at the Teatralna Square. The crisis was eventually resolved with the release of the hostages and Kryvosh's arrest.


Events


Before the crisis

Before seizing the bus, Maksym Kryvosh wrote on Twitter that "the state is the first terrorist" and made demands that heads of courts, the High Council of Justice, the
Prosecutor General of Ukraine The Prosecutor General of Ukraine (also ''Procurator General''; , ) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General (, or, before 2020, ). The prosecutor general is appointed and dismissed by th ...
, the
Minister of Justice of Ukraine The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (), Мінюст країни Minjust f Ukraine is the main body in the system of central government of Ukraine that regulates state legal policy. It is one of the oldest ministerial offices of the country ...
, the director of the prison service, the
Prime Minister of Ukraine The prime minister of Ukraine (, , ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the government of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the government of Ukrain ...
, the
Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...
(Ukraine's parliament), the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the Chairperson of the
Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...
and various heads of churches post video messages on social media expressing their name, position and stating that they are терорист в законі (a "terrorist in law"). In addition, he demanded that President of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
publish an appeal to all to watch the 2005 documentary film ''
Earthlings Earthling or Earthlings may refer to: Film and television * ''Earthling'' (film), a 2010 sci-fi film * ''Earthlings'' (film), a 2005 animal rights documentary * ''The Earthling'', a 1980 drama film * "Earthling" (''Fringe''), a 2009 TV episode ...
'', a documentary film about human exploitation of animals.


Bus seizure

Kryvosh captured a bus en route from Krasnylivka to Berestechko via
Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...
. Kryvosh had a backpack and a travel bag. The captured bus stopped at Teatralna Square near the Lesia Ukrainka monument. According to Deputy of Interior Minister of Ukraine
Anton Herashchenko Anton Yuriyovych Gerashchenko (, born 10 February 1979) is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is a former member of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) from 2014 to 20 ...
, the terrorist who took the hostages called the police at 9:25 am at the same day and introduced himself as "Maksim Plokhoy", claiming to have a bomb. Due to the seizure of the bus, the city center was blocked. The police began Operation Hostage, and the
Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...
introduced the Boomerang plan. Investigators of the National Police of Ukraine in Volyn Oblast qualified the seizer of the bus under Article 147 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (taking hostages). The police initially reported that there were 20 people on the bus, but the number of people on board was later confirmed to be 13. Interior Minister
Arsen Avakov Arsen Borysovych Avakov (, ; born 2 January 1964) is a Ukrainian politician of Armenian descent who served as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine from 2014 to 2021. He was the Chairman of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration from ...
flew to Lutsk. The
President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...
Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
stated that he was keeping the situation under control and was trying to resolve the crisis without casualties. Journalist said that the perpetrator had called him, demanding that journalists come to the bus. According to preliminary information, Kryvosh fired several shots at the police and threw a grenade at them, which did not explode. Later three explosions were reported near the bus, the city police office came under fire. Natalia Bosa, one of the hostages of the bus, said after her release that Kryvosh treated the hostages well and offered them a bucket as a toilet. By 7:00 pm, the perpetrator had allowed water to be handed over to the hostages. Before the release of the hostages Maksym Kryvosh apologized to them.


Negotiations

By 9:00 p.m. Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the perpetrator by phone for about 10 minutes, after which the perpetrator released three hostages. Zelensky also fulfilled the perpetrator's demand by recording a video with the text in Russian: "The film ''
Earthlings Earthling or Earthlings may refer to: Film and television * ''Earthling'' (film), a 2010 sci-fi film * ''Earthlings'' (film), a 2005 animal rights documentary * ''The Earthling'', a 1980 drama film * "Earthling" (''Fringe''), a 2009 TV episode ...
'' from 2005. Everyone should watch it". This video was removed later. At approximately 9:46 pm, Kryvosh got off the bus with his arms outstretched and waited for about a minute before three people approached him and arrested him without resistance from Kryvosh. After that, the special forces advanced in an assault on the bus, using an armored personnel carrier and flash-noise grenades. All of hostages were freed during the police assault after hours of negotiations, and Kryvosh was arrested. All the hostages are said to be unharmed. Deputy of Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko explained that the assault was carried out because police didn't know whether Kryvosh would do anything else.


Immediate aftermath

Arsen Avakov reported that the accomplice of the perpetrator was arrested in Kharkiv. On the night of 21–22 July, criminologists began to work at the crime scene. The Guardian reports the following consequence:
Late on Tuesday uly 21 the Ukrainian interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said: “The film … is a good one. And you don’t have to be so screwed up and cause such a horror for the whole country – you can watch it without that.”
On 24 July, a court in
Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
took into custody a possible accomplice of Kryvosh, Dmytro Mykhaylenko. He was arrested for two months on bail of ₴175,000.


Investigation

After the arrest of the perpetrator, he was charged under four articles of the Criminal Code: taking hostages, illegal handling of weapons, encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer, and terrorist act.


Attacker

The attacker is Maksym Kryvosh, a 44-year-old man. He was born on 6 November 1975, in the city of
Gay, Orenburg Oblast Gay, or Gai ( rus, Гай, p=ɡaj) is a town in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, located east of Orenburg, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 38,301. History Gay was founded in 1958 as an industr ...
,
Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
. His father, Stepan Kryvosh, an associate professor of the Polytechnic University, is an author of a patent for the manufacture of a collector of an electric machine and a method for hardening ring-shaped parts. His mother died in 2013 in a car accident. Maksym has a brother Bohdan, in 2005 a son was born to Maksym Kryvosh. He was twice convicted for robbery, extortion and fraud. Initially, on 21 July, police reported that the attacker was receiving psychiatric treatment. Interior Minister Avakov denied this information. In 2014, he published the ''Philosophy of the Criminal'' book in Russian in the VolynPoligraf publishing house, where he describes his stay in prison. The circulation of the book was 400 copies. Kryvosh later stated that he had originally planned to seize the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (; OCU), also called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is an Eastern Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It was granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on . Some of the Eastern Orthodox Churche ...
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Lutsk.


Reaction


Internal


Critics of the actions of special services and the authorities

The Security Service of Ukraine's actions during the incident were criticized for incompetence, in particular for allowing the terrorist to negotiate with President Zelensky.


Staging version

According to a number of activists it is assumed that the hostage-taking in Lutsk was staged.


Foreign

* Representatives of the US Embassy in Ukraine welcomed the release of the hostages. * The authors of the ''
Earthlings Earthling or Earthlings may refer to: Film and television * ''Earthling'' (film), a 2010 sci-fi film * ''Earthlings'' (film), a 2005 animal rights documentary * ''The Earthling'', a 1980 drama film * "Earthling" (''Fringe''), a 2009 TV episode ...
'' film reacted to the events in Lutsk, stated that they don't approve of terror.


Aftermath

After the incident the National Police of Ukraine tightened security measures in 9 western oblasts of Ukraine (
Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...
,
Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...
, Zakarpattia,
Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk (, ), formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislav and Stanisławów, is a city in western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast as well as Ivano-Frankivsk Raion within the oblast. Ivano-Frankivsk also host ...
,
Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
,
Rivne Rivne ( ; , ) is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast (province), as well as the Rivne Raion (district) within the oblast.
,
Ternopil Ternopil, known until 1944 mostly as Tarnopol, is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical regions of Galicia and Podolia. The populatio ...
,
Khmelnytsky Khmelnytskyi (, ) is a city in western Ukraine. Located on the Southern Bug, it serves as the administrative centre of Khmelnytskyi Oblast as well as Khmelnytskyi Raion within the oblast. With a population of Khmelnytskyi is the second-largest ...
and
Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...
) and
Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
.


See also

* 2010 Manila bus hostage crisis * 1995 tank rampage police chase * 2004 bulldozer rampage police chase * Sandro Barbosa do Nascimento


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutsk hostage crisis 2020 in Ukraine Terrorist incidents in Europe in 2020 Terrorist incidents in Ukraine in the 2020s Eco-terrorism History of Volyn Oblast
Hostage crisis A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...
Hostage taking in Europe July 2020 crimes in Europe