Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday January 11 the capture of two North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Kursk.
Ukraine announced on Saturday January 11 the capture of two North Korean soldiers sent to fight alongside Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces in Kursk. The two wounded soldiers were transferred to kyiv for questioning. Their identities could not be independently confirmed.
If these events are not unprecedented, a soldier had already been captured before succumbing to his wounds, they could allow Ukraine to obtain valuable information.
• Captured Thursday by special forces and paratroopers
In a statement, Ukrainian intelligence (SBU) said one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday by special forces, and the second by paratroopers.
“It was not an easy task: usually the Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to erase evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against “Ukraine”, assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesky.
The prisoners speak neither English nor Russian. The discussions are conducted in Korean with interpreters in cooperation with the South Korean intelligence services (NIS).
One of the soldiers was presented by the SBU as carrying, at the time of his capture, Russian military papers with the name of another person living in the republic of Tuva, in Siberia. This Russian region is populated mainly by Tuvans, a Turkic people also present in neighboring Mongolia.
Questioned on this point on Saturday, the press service of the Ukrainian presidency assured that Moscow was distributing false documents to North Korean fighters to conceal their identity.
-• Injured prisoners receive “all necessary medical aid”
Ukraine released a video on Saturday showing the two men in hospital bunks with bandages, one on his hands and the other on his jaw. A doctor at the detention center said the first man also had a broken leg.
Volodymyr Zelensky promises that prisoners will receive “all necessary medical assistance.” He claimed to have ordered the SBU to provide press access to detainees.
“The world needs to know what is happening,” he said.
• Soldiers trained by Russia, deprived of food and water
South Korea’s intelligence service said one of the captured soldiers revealed during interrogation that he had received military training from Russian forces after arriving in November.
According to kyiv, one of the soldiers claimed to be born in 2005, serving in the army since 2021, and said he was thinking of going to train in Russia, not fight. “He initially thought he was being sent for training, then realized upon his arrival in Russia that he had been deployed” on the front, added the Korean NIS.
According to the SBU, the other soldier had no documents on him. He would be a sniper born in 1999, in the army since 2016.
Seoul’s intelligence agency also said one of the men was “deprived of food and water for four to five days before being captured.”
