It could have been a thrilling scene in a Hollywood blockbuster but for thirteen hostages held by a gunman on a bus it was the most nightmarish few hours of their lives. On Tuesday one Maksym Kryvosh boarded a bus in Ukraine armed with gun and grenades and held the passengers captive for close to twelve hours. The police rounded up the bus and the 44 year old man said to be an ex jail bird with extremist views made demands that ran to 500 pages.

One of the demands was that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy should promote a 2005 documentary film 'Earthlings' narrated by Joaquin Phoenix that spoke about the exploitation of animals by humans over the centuries. In a bizarre turn of events the President spoke directly to the hostage-taker and agreed to promote the film after which he released the hostages and was arrested.

Zelenskiy had first spoken to Kryvosh for 7 to 10 minutes, and persuaded him to release three of the hostages, including a pregnant woman. After that, Mr Zelenskiy agreed to publish the short video clip of him saying "everyone should watch" the Earthlings film. "Human life is the most important value," he said on Facebook. "Now families can finally hug their relatives who spent the entire day on the bus in anguish."

Kryvosh is said to be unstable of mind and had served a ten year prison term for weapons smuggling and other crimes.