Gunman Threatens Hostages Unless Ukrainian President Promotes Joaquin Phoenix Animal Documentary

Ukraine recently witnessed a bizarre hostage situation when an armed gunman boarded a bus and kept the passengers as hostages over a 12-hour standoff with the police. One of the demands made by the gunman to the President of the country Volodymyr Zelenskiy was for the latter to promote an animal rights documentary narrated by Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix, called Earthlings.

The hostage-taker has been identified as 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh, an animal rights activist with a criminal record for gun possession. Kryvosh boarded the bus armed with guns as well as a grenade and kept thirteen people hostage on the bus until the standoff was resolved. The Ukrainian President had a six-second clip promotion for Earthlings posted on the presidential Facebook page, which was subsequently deleted.

Shortly afterward, Kryvosh walked out of the bus and surrendered himself to the police. Officials said he had previously spent around 10 years in prison on convictions including fraud and the illegal handling of weapons, and would be looking at another lengthy stay in the penitentiary for his latest actions.

Earthlings is a 2005 American documentary film about humankind's total dependence on animals for economic purposes. Presented in five chapters (pets, food, clothing, entertainment and scientific research) the film is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, featuring music by Moby, and was written, produced, and directed by Shaun Monson.

The critically-lauded documentary has been a fierce talking point in matters of animal-rights issues ever since its release. Phoenix himself has mentioned that Earthlings is the one thing he has done in his career that gets brought up more often than anything else. The actor has been a vegan and animal rights activist throughout most of his career. His acceptance speech for the best actor award at the 2020 Oscars included a passionate indictment of man's trespasses against nature:

"We're talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity."

"I think we've become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we're the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that's intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal."

"We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment."

Phoenix's speech was said to have broken the internet and provoked a strong response among fans. Although the hostage situation in Ukraine is unlikely to be what Phoenix had in mind as a means of righting the wrongs against nature. Thankfully, there were no casualties from the incident, and the situation was resolved with the safe passage of the hostages into police care. Deadline reported this first.