Ukrainian authorities on Saturday announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia, saying they were the first captured alive since Pyongyang sent troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two soldiers, who were wounded, were captured in western Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are fighting to hold territory they seized during a surprise cross-border incursion last summer.
In his post on various social media channels, Mr. Zelensky said the soldiers had received medical treatment, as required by the Geneva Conventions, and had been taken to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, for questioning.
Ukraine’s internal intelligence service, the SBU, said one of the soldiers was arrested on Thursday. He did not provide details on where or when the second was captured, but said they were the first North Koreans fighting against Ukraine in Kursk to be captured.
The interrogations are being conducted through Korean translators in coordination with South Korea’s intelligence service, according to the SBU. The South Korean embassy in Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor North Korea had an immediate comment.
The intelligence service of Ukraine and Mr. Zelenskiy both shared photos and videos of the two soldiers, showing one with bandages around his jaw and the other with his hands tied.
Under the rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, governments are supposed to protect a prisoner of war from becoming a “public curiosity”, a concept sometimes interpreted as not presenting them in any public setting .
Fierce fighting is raging in Kursk as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian troops and push them back across the border. Backed by more than 11,000 North Korean troops, Russian troops have retaken about half of the ground they lost in the region.
But Ukraine is stuck on more than 150 square miles of land inside Russia. The White House said North Korean forces were suffering heavy casualties.
Last month, the Biden administration said more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian troops in Kursk over the course of a week – with some choosing suicide rather than surrender.
