Ukrainian authorities announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia on Saturday, the first to be captured safely since Pyongyang sent troops to help Moscow’s war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the two wounded soldiers were captured in the Kursk region of western Russia, where the Ukrainian military fought to keep the territories seized during an unexpected cross-border intervention last summer.
In a post on various social media channels, Mr. Zelensky said that the soldiers received medical care in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Conventions and were taken to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, for interrogation.
Ukraine’s internal intelligence service SBU said one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday. Although he did not give details about when and where the latter were captured, he said that they were the first captured by North Koreans fighting against Ukraine in Kursk.
Their capture, the SBU said in a long statementIt presents “irrefutable evidence of North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against our country.”
The Kremlin has not directly confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Moscow forces.
According to the SBU, the interrogations are conducted through Korean interpreters in coordination with the South Korean intelligence service. The South Korean embassy in Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor North Korea had an immediate comment.
Ukraine’s intelligence service and Mr. Zelenskiy shared photos and videos of two soldiers, one with a bandaged chin and the other with bandaged hands.
Under the Geneva Conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners of war, governments must protect prisoners of war from becoming a matter of “public interest”. sometimes it is interpreted as not presenting them in any social setting.
Fierce fighting rages in Kursk as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian troops and drive them back across the border. More than 11,000 supported North Korean soldiersRussian troops have recaptured almost half of the territory they lost in the area.
But Ukraine is sealed off to more than 150 square miles inside Russia. The White House said North Korean forces suffered heavy casualties.
The Biden administration said last month More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers within a week were killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk – some of whom chose suicide rather than surrender.
South Korean intelligence officials said North Korean soldiers had been deployed so hurried — with soldiers entering combat after learning little military terms like “open fire” and “artillery” in Russian — it may take time for them to properly integrate with Moscow’s forces.
The capture of the two soldiers could provide Ukraine with valuable intelligence about Russia’s military operations in Kursk and interactions with North Korean soldiers.
Ukrainian intelligence said in a statement on Sunday that one of the captured soldiers was sent to Russia for training and not to fight in Ukraine. According to the SBU, that soldier had a Russian military ID.
Mr. Zelensky hinted at this in a speech on Sunday night, saying that “the Russians are giving their documents to these Koreans, but they are not going to deceive anyone.”
Ivan Nechepurenko and Anastasia Kuznetsova contributed to the report.
