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What did Ukraine learn by 27 July 2020?
Summary
A look back at two stories that shaped Ukraine's news in the days before 27 July 2020: the Lutsk bus hostage crisis and the PS 752 black box findings.
What was Ukraine weighing on 27 July 2020? Two stories from the preceding week still framed the news: a hostage drama in Lutsk and fresh findings on the downed flight PS 752.
The Lutsk bus siege
On 21 July 2020, a gunman carrying explosives took 16 people hostage aboard a public bus in Lutsk. Police said they identified the man, who had expressed frustration with the Ukrainian system on social media. Later background accounts name him as Maksym Kryvosh and say he seized the bus at Teatralna Square in Volyn Oblast.
After hours of negotiations, the hostages were freed unharmed and the gunman surrendered to police. Shortly before that, President Volodymyr Zelensky met one of the gunman's demands and posted a video on Facebook urging everyone to watch the 2005 film Earthlings.
Findings on flight PS 752
On 24 July 2020, three days before the covered date, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry reported progress on the investigation into flight PS 752, shot down near Tehran on 8 January. France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) had succeeded in reading and decoding the damaged black boxes. According to the ministry, the transcript confirmed that there had been unlawful interference in the aircraft's operation.
Two threads, one week
One story ended with all hostages unharmed after a tense standoff; the other moved forward through technical analysis of recorded data. Together they marked the days leading up to 27 July 2020.
