Ukraine says it captured two injured North Korean soldiers in Russia
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Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops in the Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed. He made the comments days after Ukraine began pressing new attacks in Kursk to retain ground captured in a lightning incursion in August that resulted in the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.
Moscow's counterattack has left Ukrainian forces outstretched and demoralised, killing and wounding thousands and retaking more than 40 per cent of the 984 square kilometres (380 square miles) of Kursk Ukraine had seized. At least 10,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to be involved in the conflict, according to Kyiv and its western allies.
In a post on X, Zelensky said the two captured soldiers had been brought to Kyiv and were communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine, the country's domestic intelligence agency. "As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance," Zelensky said. He said that journalists would be given access to speak to them.
He shared photos of two men resting on cots in a room with bars over the windows. Both wore bandages, one around his jaw and the other around both hands and wrists. Zelensky said capturing the soldiers alive was "not easy." He asserted that Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk have tried to conceal the presence of North Korean soldiers, including by killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid their capture and interrogation by Kyiv.
