Ukrainian authorities announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia on Saturday, saying they were the first to be captured alive since Pyongyang sent troops to assist Moscow’s war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two wounded soldiers were captured in the Kursk region of western Russia, where Ukrainian troops have been fighting to hold onto territory captured in a surprise cross-border incursion last summer.
In a post on various social media channels, Zelensky said the soldiers received medical treatment, as required by the Geneva Conventions, and were taken to Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, for interrogation.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU, said one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday. He gave no details on where or when the second was taken prisoner, but said they were the first North Koreans fighting Ukraine in Kursk to be captured.
According to the SBU, the interrogations will be conducted by Korean translators in coordination with South Korea’s intelligence service. South Korea’s embassy in Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor North Korea had immediate comment.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency and Mr. Zelensky both shared photographs and videos of the two soldiers, showing one with bandages around his jaw and the other with his hands bandaged.
Under the rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, governments should protect a prisoner of war from being made a “public curiosity,” a concept that is sometimes interpreted as not presenting him or her in any context public.
Fierce fighting rages in Kursk as Russian forces try to rout Ukrainian troops and push them back across the border. Backed by more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers, Russian troops have recaptured about half of the lost territory in the area.
But Ukraine has retained more than 150 square miles of territory 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, some of whom chose suicide over surrender.