Ukraine carjacker at large after holding local police chief hostage for hours & threatening officers with GRENADE

A Ukrainian man who threatened to blow himself up along with a police chief has released the hostage and remains at large. Police have launched an operation to capture him.

The hostage drama in the Ukrainian city of Poltava began with a routine police raid to detain a man suspected of possessing a stolen vehicle. As the officers were closing in on the suspect, he grabbed one of them by the hand and threatened to set off a grenade. 

Amid negotiations, the suspect agreed to release the officer in exchange for a local police chief and a police van so they could leave the city. After driving away from Poltava, the suspect left the van in the middle of the road and fled to the nearby woods, police said. The hostage was unharmed.

Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko said that the suspect is a 32-year-old man who was previously convicted of theft, fraud, and drug offenses. He was also reportedly treated for mental illness. Herashchenko released an old mugshot of the suspect.

The crisis took place just two days after a dramatic hostage situation in another Ukrainian city, as a gunman seized a passenger bus in the center of Lutsk and threatened to blow it up. The siege lasted for around 12 hours, and the hostages were freed after President Volodymyr Zelensky personally negotiated with the terrorist, who was arrested.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!