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Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Saturday said his men has captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region of Russia.
The Eastern Updates reports that this is the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the war last autumn.
According to Kyiv and its western allies, who initially estimated their numbers at 10,000 or more, North Korean regular troops entered the war on Russia’s side in October.
Zelenskiy, in a post on X, said that the soldiers had been brought to Kyiv and were communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine, SBU, the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
“As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” Zelenskiy said.
According to him, journalists would be given access to speak to them.
Kyiv said North Korean troops are fighting in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion in August, adding that it still controls several hundred square kilometres of territory there.
Kyiv and its western allies further disclosed that Pyongyang has also been supplying Russia with vast quantities of artillery shells.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk and there was no immediate reaction from Moscow or Pyongyang to the latest report.
Ukraine had previously said it captured North Korean soldiers in combat but that they had been badly wounded and died shortly afterwards.
A senior Ukrainian military official said last month that a couple of hundred North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk have been killed or wounded in battle.
The official was providing the first significant estimate of North Korean casualties, which came several weeks after Ukraine announced that Pyongyang had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in its almost three-year war against its much smaller neighbour.
The White House and Pentagon last month confirmed that the North Korean forces have been battling on the front lines in largely infantry positions.
They have been fighting with Russian units and, in some cases, independently around Kursk.
