The Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov has arrived in Lutsk urgently through the hostage-taking and is commissioned to report on the state of affairs from the scene. This was announced by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal.

The Hostage police operation is underway, and the Security Service of Ukraine has introduced the Boomerang plan.

"Now the best specialists are working in the city. According to preliminary data, there are about 20 hostages inside the bus. The most essential now is to save their lives," the Head of Government stressed.

The National Police reports, the police opened a criminal investigation into the hostage-taking in Lutsk.

Investigators of the Volyn Police Office previously qualified the actions of a man having hijacked a bus with passengers in the central part of Lutsk under Article 147 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Relevant information has been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations. The article provides for criminal liability for hostage-taking with the penalty under this article being imprisonment for a term of seven to fifteen years.