Ukraine said two North Korea soldiers who were captured by its forces in Russia’s Kursk region, are facing investigations.
“These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived and were brought to Kyiv and are talking to SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] investigators,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement on Telegram on January 11.
Zelenskiy’s Telegram post included photos of the soldiers he says were taken prisoner. He did not provide evidence that they were North Korean, but if this is confirmed, it will be the first time Ukrainian authorities have published images of captured North Korean troops.
The Ukrainian President said it was “not easy” to capture the North Korean soldiers, claiming that Moscow attempted to hide their presence by letting Russian and North Korean troops kill their wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid being taken prisoner by Kyiv.
His comments followed new Ukrainian attacks in Kursk to prevent Russia from snatching back territory. A lightning Ukrainian offensive first captured large swaths of the Kursk region in August 2024. It was the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II.
Last fall, Moscow sent some 11,000 North Korean troops to the Kursk region to support Russian forces there. Moscow has reclaimed some 40 percent of the territory, but Ukrainian troops still control more than 500 square kilometers in Kursk, and Pyongyang’s troops have reportedly been experiencing mass casualties there.
