Grenade-wielding maniac hijacks car and threatens to kill cops in second hostage situation in Ukraine this week

A MAN armed with a grenade has taken a senior police officer hostage in the Ukrainian city of Poltava.

The incident is the second hostage situation to have occurred in the country this week.

Officials said it began at around 9am local time on Ostapa Vyshni Street, near the city's administrative court.

Police were reportedly attempting to arrest the man on suspicion of hijacking a vehicle when he produced a grenade.

He initially took a police officer hostage, and after negotiations exchanged the man for a police colonel.

He is then reported to have left the scene with the colonel in a car provided by police.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said: "Negotiations are ongoing to force the attacker to surrender to the police without harming himself or others."

Local media reported that the man was driving as if to leave the city and was being pursued by multiple police cars.

A statement by the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police today read: "After talks, the terrorist changed a detained officer of the criminal investigation department for Head of Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine in Poltava region, police colonel Vitaliy Shyian."

It said the man then drove in a vehicle "provided according to his requirements in the direction of leaving the city".

The incident comes after a man took 20 people hostage in the city of Lutsk on Tuesday.

The man, named as Maxim Krovishey, boarded a bus armed with guns and explosives and made a series of demands, including that President Volodymyr Zelensky urge citizens to watch animal rights film Earthlings.

All hostages were later released unharmed after Zelensky posted a video to his Facebook page encouraging his followers to watch the film.

No possible motivation for today's incident has yet been reported.

Poltava, located in eastern central Ukraine, is the capital of the Poltava region and has a population of 289,000 people.