Ukraine bus siege: Gunman surrenders to police after phone call with president ends 12-hour stand-off

Man lets hostages go free after president agrees to endorse Joaquin Phoenix documentary

The hostage-taker surrendered to police soon after Ukraine's president endorsed a documentary about animal rights (AFP)

An “unstable” armed man who took more than a dozen people hostage on a bus in Ukraine has been detained after a standoff which lasted for more than 12 hours, officials have said.

The hostage-taker agreed to let the passengers on the bus go free following a 15-minute phone call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff told reporters.

The man asked Mr Zelensky to post a video message on his Facebook page urging Ukrainians to watch Earthlings, a 2005 documentary narrated by actor Joaquin Phoenix on humanity’s exploitation of animals.

Minutes after the video was posted, the hostage-taker walked off the bus in the western city of Lutsk and surrendered to the police.

All 13 hostages were freed unharmed, authorities said.

In a post following the man’s arrest, Mr Zelensky, who has now deleted his post endorsing the documentary, praised those who had been involved in resolving the hostage situation.

“Human life is the most important value. We haven't lost anyone,” he said.

“Now families can finally hug their relatives who spent the entire day on the bus in anguish.”

Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister, told reporters that the hostage-taker was “an unstable man who painted his vision of the world and invented a revenge for it.”

“He had his own vision of justice and the value of human life," Mr Avakov added.

Ukrainian media described the man as an animal rights activist who helped protect stray dogs

Following negotiations with the first deputy chief of national police, Yevhen Koval, earlier in the day, the hostage-taker released three of the passengers, including a pregnant woman.

Police have identified the man as Maksim Krivosh, a 44-year-old Ukrainian born in Russia, who had reportedly already spent a total of 10 years in prison for a wide range of charges, according to deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko.

Although the bus siege ended with no injuries, the man fired his gun through the bus window during a conversation with Mr Koval and narrowly missed the deputy police chief.

Police also had to seal off the centre of Lutsk as the situation unfolded and at one point, the man threw explosives out of a bus window and fired several shots at a police drone.

Mr Gerashchenko said the hostage-taker had called the police on himself at 9:25am after taking control of the vehicle.

Additional reporting by AP