Ukrainians said North Koreans are so determined to avoid capture that one tried to take himself out with a concrete pillar

• Ukrainian paratroopers mentioned a North Korean soldier they captured ran right into a pillar to knock himself out.

• They mentioned they discovered him alone on the battlefield with a grenade, a knife, and a few meals.

• Their prisoner carefully resembles one of many two North Koreans Ukraine mentioned it captured.

Ukrainian paratroopers in Kursk mentioned they captured a North Korean soldier who tried so onerous to evade seize that he deliberately ran right into a concrete pillar to knock himself out.

Three members of the ninety fifth Separate Air Assault Polissia Brigade spoke of the encounter in a video revealed on Tuesday, describing how one among their drones discovered a lone North Korean on the battlefield after an assault had ended.

The clip was revealed by the brigade’s press service on its YouTube, Fb, and Telegram accounts.

The paratroopers mentioned they enveloped the North Korean with steerage from drone operators and located that he did not reply to instructions in Ukrainian, Russian, or English.

“With gestures, we confirmed him what to do,” one of many paratroopers mentioned.

The soldier was carrying a grenade, a knife, and a sausage, the paratroopers mentioned.

They mentioned the North Korean was additionally visibly wounded, together with his jaw bandaged and one among his palms showing to be injured.

One paratrooper mentioned the injured soldier appeared calm at first however grew agitated when he noticed a automobile coming to choose him up.

“Once we introduced him close to the highway, all of the sudden he ran headfirst right into a concrete pillar at full pace. He hit it very onerous and possibly handed out,” he mentioned.

However the paratrooper additionally suspects it might need been a ploy by the North Korean soldier, as a result of the latter fell backward, not ahead, as one would possibly count on when a charging individual faints.

“I believe he was faking it, attempting to get us shut so he might seize a weapon and assault us,” he mentioned.

The paratroopers mentioned they finally hauled the North Korean right into a automobile and took him away from the entrance traces, after which he acquired meals and watched romance movies upon request.

An older paratrooper mentioned within the video that the North Koreans’ techniques appeared to imitate Russia’s Soviet-era fighting, with frontal assaults the place “they attempt to crush merely with large numbers.”

However he added that whereas Russian forces in Kursk are likely to assault in teams of two or three, the North Koreans would conduct assaults with teams of at the least six.

The paratroopers mentioned that Pyongyang’s forces would struggle to the tip if cornered, including that their brigade reported situations the place wounded North Koreans blew themselves as much as keep away from seize.

“They aren’t in a temper to give up,” one of many paratroopers mentioned.

The person they captured seems to be one among two North Korean soldiers whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced had been seized from the battlefield in early January.

One was captured by Ukraine’s particular forces, whereas the opposite was discovered by the Polissia brigade.

The paratroopers posted a clip of their prisoner on January 11, which they referenced when recounting the occasions of his seize of their Tuesday video.

One other North Korean soldier, separate from the pair proven by Zelenskyy, was captured in December, however South Korea’s intelligence service mentioned he died of his injuries shortly after.

Western and South Korean intelligence estimate that 12,000 North Korean troopers have been despatched to Russia, the place they have been deployed to fight a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk region.

Their presence within the warfare is a major signal of Pyongyang and Moscow strengthening an financial and army partnership spurred by Russia’s isolation for the reason that warfare started.

North Korean chief Kim Jong-un is believed to have acquired meals, monetary help, and Russian experience in house and weapons applied sciences in return for his troops and weapons.

In the meantime, the West fears that North Korean troops are gaining valuable combat experience from combating in Russia.

A captured North Korean soldier’s paperwork obtained by The Washington Post discusses steerage associated to the six-man frontal assaults the paratroopers spoke of.

“In fashionable warfare, the place real-time reconnaissance and drone strikes are carried out, failing to disperse fight groups into smaller items of two to a few members might result in important casualties from enemy drones and artillery,” one doc learn, per The Submit.

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