In the show « Facing the world » on Onda Madrid, reporter and journalist María Senovilla, a collaborator of Atalayar, analyzed how Ukrainian troops captured North Korean soldiers who were fighting alongside Russia.
He also looked at the friendship treaty signed 100 years ago by Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Maria, North Korean soldiers are fighting alongside Russian troops and some have been captured by Ukrainian units. How did this capture take place?
It’s true, the fact that Ukraine captured several soldiers alive caused a lot of noise this week. It was Zelensky himself who made it public on his social media. He even published transcripts of certain fragments of the interrogations and, as the days went by, more and more details were revealed, because this capture was not a coincidence. It was carried out thanks to a military operation whose objective was to capture North Korean soldiers alive.
While their involvement in this war had been denounced for months, over the months, numerous videos captured with drones, testimonies from Ukrainian soldiers and corroborations from American, South Korean and even Ukrainian intelligence services have made it possible to estimate the size of the contingent at around 12,000 soldiers.
Despite all this evidence, some pro-Russian forums continued to deny the involvement of North Korean fighters in the war in Ukraine. Zelensky therefore ordered a mission to provide evidence of this reality. The mission lasted a month before it was successful, as North Korean soldiers were trained to blow themselves up with a grenade before being captured.
This is one of the main obstacles faced by special operations troops of the Ukrainian forces tasked with capturing these North Koreans during their operations in Russia’s Kursk region.
One of the soldiers who took part in the mission, and who gave an interview a few hours ago, said it was almost impossible to overcome the fanatical and suicidal zeal instilled in Pyongyang’s troops. He added that when they were about to be taken prisoner, they shouted slogans such as “Glory to the party” or “Glory to Kim Jong-un”, picked up a grenade and blew themselves up.
This is something that is instilled in Russian soldiers, but they seem to obey less than the North Koreans. I had the opportunity to interview several of these Russian prisoners captured in Kursk a few months ago. I had access to a detention center and was able to question several of them. They told me that their Russian officers were training them, trying to instill in them that it was better to die than to be captured as a prisoner of war by the Ukrainians because they were going to inflict a series of absolutely horrible tortures on them. So I said to the soldier: “but you didn’t believe him, because you are here alive and you are talking to me.” He replied: “No, it’s just that when they arrested me, I went to get a grenade to blow myself up and I didn’t have any left.” It was an almost comical moment, but it’s absolutely terrible to see how they instill in them these suicidal orders according to which, before being taken prisoner, they must end their lives.
Regarding the North Koreans, Mr. Zelensky said that North Korea had suffered some 4,000 casualties in Russia’s fighting against Ukraine in recent months, and the North’s intelligence agency South Korea corroborated these figures. She estimated North Korean losses at 300 dead and some 2,700 wounded. However, no one excludes that Kim Jong-un will send more troops to the Kremlin in this countdown until Donald Trump comes to power, and we will see what happens at the political level and at the negotiating tables.
This information is also corroborated by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, who claims that a third of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia against Ukrainian forces are either dead or injured. You went to the front line in Kharkov and spoke to Ukrainian soldiers. What do they think of a possible end to the war, as Trump promises when he arrives at the White House?
-It’s one of the topics on every Ukrainian’s lips these days, the countdown to Trump’s inauguration is in its home stretch and you can really feel it on the ground in Ukraine. I was able to go to the front line at a drone position and I took the opportunity to ask the soldiers who were there their point of view, their vision, what they expected for the weeks or months to come . It was also a very busy night because there were Shahed drones and when there are Shahed drones, it is impossible to fly Ukrainian attack drones.
I was in the piloting position of a Vampire drone, which is a drone produced in Ukraine and which costs $25,000 per unit to manufacture. It’s not nothing. So when there is Shahed or when they are attacked, they reserve the plane and don’t fly it. We stood there for three hours, waiting for the Shaheds to leave, and I took the opportunity to talk to them and ask them what they thought about what these negotiations could be.
I asked them if the military side, if the more than a million people who are now mobilized by the army were going to accept the capitulation of Ukraine and the possible loss of territory, and what they wanted to do first once the war is over. Regarding the acceptance of the possibility of losing the occupied territories, they told me that the fatigue of these three years had already got the better of many of them and that most had already realized that part of the occupied territories, especially those in Donbas, were practically impossible to recover.
But be careful, they told me that once the war is over, if these negotiations begin as soon as Trump promises and are successful, “the first thing we will do is rest, but the second thing we will do is continue to train and prepare for the next invasion of Russia because it will not stand still, because it is an unreliable neighbor and because no Ukrainian is safe unless the war ends now without sufficient guarantees, a new large-scale invasion will not be not repeated and will be even worse than the first.
To begin with, Zelensky signed a 100-year friendship treaty with British Prime Minister Starmer.
This is one of the most important news. Ukraine and the United Kingdom sign this 100-year partnership agreement and the British have also committed to providing Ukraine with an additional $3.6 billion in military aid, which will begin arriving shortly. The agreement was signed by Volodymyr Zelensky on behalf of Ukraine and by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who traveled to kyiv for the occasion.
Russia took advantage of the opportunity to carry out bombings, which is also not new since in recent days massive attacks have, as always, taken place in several Ukrainian cities.
Coming back to this agreement with the United Kingdom, it is a very broad agreement which covers cooperation in the military, energy, scientific, cultural and economic sectors, among others, and which is based on a previous agreement of Trade and Association that the two countries signed in 2020 and on the bilateral security agreement that they signed subsequently. But this one, we insist, is much broader and also covers a validity period of 100 years. The document includes ten main pillars, ranging from strengthening defense capabilities and supporting Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO, to international cooperation in the areas of trade, energy and justice.
During their presentation, the two leaders recalled that these friendship agreements are a response to Russia’s expansionist ambitions and warned that this is the best response that Western countries can give, by uniting with each other. others in the face of the Kremlin’s incessant expansionist ambitions. In addition, the British are also sending 150 artillery guns and a mobile air defense system, and have joined the initiative of EU countries to expand the training of Ukrainian fighters on European soil and, in this case , also on British soil.
Although we are very aware of Trump’s ascension to the White House and his promise to immediately end the war in Ukraine, EU countries and the UK continue to extend this aid, this military support, this support for Ukraine, and they don’t set an expiration date.
