Vladimir Putin has urged his soldiers to kill North Korean troops fighting on his side for a chilling reason, according to an expert. North Korean soldiers joined Putin's invasion after the Russian dictator plunged the countries into full-blown war in 2022. But figures from South Korea suggest nearly 300 North Korean soldiers have died with another 2,700 having been injured. Reports suggest bodies of the dead have been burned in a bid to hid their losses. An expert has also claimed that both Russian and North Korean soldiers are under orders to kill the wounded soldiers to prevent them being captured.
Anton Shekhovtsov, a visiting professor at Central European University in Vienna, Austria, said: "Capturing POWs has proven challenging as North Koreans and Russians alike are apparently instructed to kill wounded NK soldiers to prevent them from falling into Ukrainian hands.".
He continued in a thread shared to X/Twitter: "Yet recently Ukrainians have successfully captured two NK soldiers alive. Both individuals carried Russian military service cards alleging they were born in the Tuva Republic, a region included in the Russian Federation. Russian non-regime media also report that the Russian authorities transferred identities of actual Tuvans to drafted NK soldiers. The choice of Tuva is understandable: native Tuvans bear a physical resemblance to North Koreans.".
