Two North Korean soldiers have been captured by Ukraine during Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
The soldiers were given medical care for their injuries and are in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kyiv, according to Zelensky, who shared a statement on X (formerly Twitter) along with images of the captives.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
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Why it matters
Ukraine has alleged that North Korea had deployed around 12,000 soldiers in Kursk Oblast to fight alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces. The contribution Pyongyang makes to Moscow’s war effort is of concern to Kyiv. Ukraine’s interrogation of the POWs could provide insight into Russia’s operation to recapture seized parts of the region.
What to know
In a post on his Telegram social media channel, Zelensky said on Saturday that soldiers of Ukraine’s Tactical Group No. 84 had captured two North Korean soldiers as prisoners of war (POWs) in the Kursk region in a task he described as “not easy.”
According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), one POW was born in 2005 and had been in the military since 2021. The agency said in a post on Telegram that the POW thought he was going to Kursk for training and not to fight against Ukraine in the war.
The other POW was born in 1999 and had served in the North Korean army since 2016 as a sniper reconnaissance officer, the SBU said. It said investigations are ongoing with the help of South Korean translators because neither could speak Russian or Ukrainian.
One POW had a Russian-style military ID issued in the name of another person with registration in the Republic of Tuva and the other was without documents at all, the SBU said.
Zelensky said that Ukraine had given the injured pair medical treatment and that they were being treated better compared to what Russia or North Korea might have done with its own wounded.
“Russians and other military personnel from North Korea finish off their wounded and do everything so that there is no evidence of the participation of another state,” Zelensky wrote, according to a translation.
The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) said two weeks ago that Ukrainian troops had captured a wounded North Korean soldier who later died of his wounds, South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.
What people are saying
Volodymyr Zelensky said on January 11: “Our soldiers captured soldiers from North Korea in the Kursk region. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv, communicate with the SBU investigators.”
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service: “Immediately after capture, the foreigners were provided with all the necessary medical care, as provided for by the Geneva Convention.”
What happens next
Ukraine is conducting a criminal investigation which could see the North Korean POWs face war-related charges, the SBU said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that North Korean troops had suffered over 1,000 casualties since December, though Zelensky has said the figure is as high as 4,000.
North Korean personnel are likely to continue to be part of Russia’s efforts in Kursk which the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said have been stepped up to retake the remainder of the region.