Ukraine says it has captured two North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia – National
Ukrainian troops have captured two North Korean soldiers fighting with Russian troops on the Kursk border, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
He made the comments days after Ukraine began pressing a new offensive in Kursk to retain territory seized in a lightning strike in August that led to Russia’s first seizure of territory since World War II.
Moscow’s offensive left Ukrainian forces stretched and demoralized, killing and wounding thousands and recapturing more than 40 percent of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk Ukraine had taken.
“Our troops captured the North Korean soldiers in Kursk. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv, and are in contact” with Ukrainian security forces, Zelenskyy said in a Telegram message post.
He shared photos of two men resting on a bed in a room with barred windows. Both had bandages on, one around the jaw and the other around the hands and wrists.
Zelenskyy said capturing soldiers alive is “not easy.” He asserted that the Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk tried to hide the presence of North Korean soldiers, including killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid capture and interrogation by Kyiv.
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Ukraine’s security service SBU on Saturday provided more information about the two soldiers. In a statement, it said one had no documents at all, while the other held a Russian military ID in the name of a man from Tuva, a Russian region bordering Mongolia.
“The prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, so communication with them is done through Korean translators in cooperation with South Korean intelligence,” the statement said.
According to the SBU, one of the soldiers said that he was told that he was going to Russia for training, rather than to fight against Ukraine.
The agency said both men had been given medical treatment in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, and were being investigated “in cooperation with South Korean intelligence.”
A Ukrainian military official last month said several hundred North Korean soldiers fighting Russian forces in Kursk had been killed or wounded in the fighting.
The official was providing the first significant estimate of North Korean casualties, which came weeks after Ukraine announced that Pyongyang had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help in its nearly three-year war against its smallest neighbor.
The White House and the Pentagon last month confirmed that North Korean forces have been fighting on the front lines in many areas for children. They have been fighting with Russian units and, in some cases, independently near Kursk.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
