Ukraine captured two injured North Korean soldiers, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine has captured two injured North Korean soldiers from the battlefield in Russia’s Kursk region and transferred them to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Saturday.

“Two troopers, although wounded, survived and had been transported to Kyiv, the place they’re now speaking with the Safety Service of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, alongside a collection of pictures of the prisoners.

It’s the first time Ukraine has stated it has detained North Korean troops since Pyongyang deployed an estimated 11,000 soldiers to assist Russia late final 12 months, based on the U.S. and its allies. Neither Russia nor North Korea have publicly acknowledged the troop deployment.

“As with all prisoners of battle, these two North Korean troopers are receiving the required medical help,” Zelenskyy stated, noting that their seize “was not a simple job,” including the declare that Russian and North Korean troopers “often execute their wounded to erase any proof of North Korea’s involvement within the battle in opposition to Ukraine.”

One of many photographs posted by Zelenskyy confirmed a person with each arms bandaged and a striped sweater pulled over his shoulders. One other man is pictured with swollen lips and a bandage wrapped round his head. 

Two different photographs confirmed the duvet and inside pages of a Russian doc. 

Ukraine’s navy warned in December that Russia was making an attempt to “conceal the presence of North Korean navy personnel by issuing them false paperwork.”

It stated navy playing cards for North Koreans killed within the conflicts had been “lacking all of the stamps and pictures,” and that the signatures on the paperwork are in Korean, which “signifies the actual origin of those troopers.”

In October, South Korean intelligence companies stated that North Korean particular forces troopers acquired Russian navy uniforms and Russian-made weapons, in addition to faux identification paperwork to make it look as if they arrive from Russia’s Far East, the place folks can resemble North Koreans. 

Zelensky stated that he had instructed Ukraine’s safety service to permit journalists entry to the prisoners. 

“The world must know the reality about what is occurring,” he stated.

Zelenskyy stated final week that 4,000 North Korean troopers have died or been wounded within the Kursk area, the place Ukrainian forces have launched a cross-border incursion since August.

The identical month, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson John Kirby stated some North Korean troopers had taken their own lives relatively than give up to Ukrainian forces.

These suicides, he stated, had been “probably out of concern of reprisal in opposition to their households in North Korea within the occasion that they are captured.”