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| - Ukrainian special forces on Monday detained a man who took a bank employee hostage and threatened to detonate an explosive device in a business centre in capital Kiev, the interior ministry said. The three-hour drama, the second hostage-taking incident in Ukraine in two weeks, ended peacefully with no-one hurt, deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook. Heavily-armed units were seen outside the building as uniformed officers held back crowds and reporters at a safe distance. Special forces "detained the perpetrator that took a hostage" in a "successful" operation, the SBU security service said on Twitter. Bomb technicians were still working at the scene after the suspect, believed to be a 32-year-old Uzbek citizen, claimed he was carrying an easily-triggered "large explosive charge" strapped to his leg, Geraschenko said, adding he faced a potential "long prison sentence". After prosecutors labelled the incident an "act of terror" the suspect could face up to 10 years in prison. The man carrying a backpack had entered the bank in the Leonardo business centre in central Kiev claiming he had a bomb, Gerashchenko said. He demanded to phone the police but allowed the bank employees to leave the building, Gerashchenko added. "According to preliminary information, a woman who manages the bank branch chose to stay in the building" and was considered a hostage, Gerashchenko told AFP by phone. Last month an armed man carrying explosives took 13 passengers hostage on a bus in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk. Police freed the hostages and arrested the attacker following a 12-hour standoff that ended after President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to his bizzare demand to post a movie recommendation on social media. The president posted a video of himself recommending a 2005 US documentary narrated by actor Joaquin Phoenix called "Earthlings", which condemns humans' mistreatment of animals. Some Ukrainians criticised Zelensky for his concession to the hostage-taker, however. "The bad news is that a terrorist can force the president of Ukraine to record a video," former MP Boryslav Bereza said on Facebook. This move "will motivate new terrorists to commit new crimes", Bereza added. osh/ma/tgb
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