The news seems to be getting stranger every day. Thirteen hostages in Ukraine have been released unharmed after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed to promote a Joaquin Phoenix film, per the hostage-taker’s demands.
The kidnapper, identified as 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh, was armed with guns and a grenade, and he took over a bus. Police held a tense standoff with him for 12 hours.
Kryvosh is an animal rights activist with a criminal record. The film he wanted Zelenskiy to recommend a 2005 documentary Earthlings, which criticizes mankind’s use of animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and for scientific research.
Zelenskiy complied, in a six-second clip posted on Facebook. Once the hostages were released, the clip was deleted.