Two North Korean soldiers have been taken prisoner during fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
The men had survived despite their combat injuries and had been taken to Kiev, where Ukrainian intelligence operatives were interrogating them, Zelensky posted on social networks.
The press would be given access to the prisoners, he said: “The world must know what is happening.”
It was not his first report about captured North Koreans. However, previous prisoners had died of their injuries, according to Zelensky.
North Korea is believed to have sent around 12,000 soldiers to Russia to support its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.
Moscow is currently using North Koreans to reinforce its units in the counter-attack in the Kursk region, parts of which Ukrainian troops seized in a surprise offensive last August.
According to estimates by both Ukraine and the US, the North Koreans are suffering heavy losses there.
Zelensky attached photos to his posts that allegedly show the prisoners.
It is difficult to capture North Korean soldiers alive, he wrote. The Russian and North Korean military would rather kill injured North Koreans than allow them to be taken prisoner, he claimed.
“Like all prisoners, these two North Korean soldiers are being provided with the necessary medical care,” Zelensky wrote.
Under international humanitarian law, prisoners of war may not be put on public display. According to the Red Cross, reports on prisoners of war are not prohibited, but the captives should not be identified.
A Russian military ID card was also shown by Zelensky, according to which one of the North Koreans was given a birthplace in the Russian republic of Tuva.
“Russia gives the Koreans these documents, but they are not deceiving anyone,” Zelensky commented in a video. “Russia itself is doing everything to prolong and expand the war and will take responsibility for it.”