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MOSCOW (AP) — All nine people taken hostage at a post office in Ukraine's second-biggest city have been released and the man who held them has been arrested, police said Saturday.
Ukrainian police chief Serhiy Knyazev said no one was injured in the standoff in Kharkiv.
Police didn't say whether the attacker, who said he had firearms and explosives, made any specific demands.
Initial reports said the man was holding 11 people, but Kharkiv police said after the siege was over that he had taken nine hostages.
They said that the hostage-taker first released three women and two children following talks. A boy interviewed in a video posted by a Ukrainian journalist said the man said he had a brain tumor and treated the hostages well, offering them tea or coffee.
The remaining four hostages were freed when police stormed the post office. Ukrainian television stations broadcast footage of the hostage-taker being escorted out of the building by police. The man faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
In a Facebook statement, President Petro Poroshenko thanked police and the national security service for taking part in the operation.
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