Two wounded North Korean soldiers have been captured as prisoners of war by Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
The two men are receiving “necessary medical assistance” and are in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kyiv, Zelensky said.
The president said he was “grateful” to Ukrainian paratroopers and Special Operations Forces soldiers for capturing the North Koreans.
He added that “this was not an easy task,” asserting that Russian and North Korean soldiers routinely execute wounded North Koreans “to erase all evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian intelligence service said in a statement that the prisoners were captured on January 9 and immediately afterwards “they were provided with all necessary medical care as prescribed by the Geneva Convention” and taken to Kyiv.
“They are being held in appropriate conditions that meet the requirements of international law,” the intelligence service said in a statement.
The intelligence service said the prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, “so communication with them is done through a Korean translator, in cooperation with South Korea’s NIS (National Intelligence Service).”
In a statement posted on Telegram and X, Zelensky said the soldiers “talked to SBU investigators” and that he had ordered the Security Service of Ukraine to give journalists access to them.
“The world needs to know the truth about what is happening,” he added.
Along with his statement, Zelenski published four photos. Two show wounded men. One of the photos shows a red Russian military ID card.
The place of birth on the document is listed as Turan, in the Republic of Tuva, which is close to Mongolia.
The intelligence service said that when the prisoners were captured, one of the soldiers had a Russian military ID issued in the name of another person who was registered in the Republic of Tuva. The other had no documents.
The intelligence service said that during questioning, the soldier with the ID card told security officials that the document was issued to him in Russia during the fall of 2024.
He reportedly stated that at the time, some North Korean combat units had a week of interoperability training.
“It is important to note that the prisoner… emphasizes that he was allegedly going to training, and not to war against Ukraine,” the SBU statement said.
Intelligence reported that he said he was born in 2005 and had served North Korea as a gunner since 2021.
Another prisoner reportedly gave some of his answers in writing because he had an injured jaw, according to the SBU. The intelligence service said it believed he was born in 1999 and had served in North Korea as a scout sniper since 2016.
The Geneva Convention states that interrogation of prisoners should be conducted in a language they understand and that prisoners must be protected from public curiosity.
Zelenski’s office stated in a statement that the Russians are “trying to hide the fact that these are soldiers from North Korea by giving them documents claiming that they are from Tuva or other territories controlled by Moscow.”
“But these people are actually Koreans, they are from North Korea,” the president’s office said in a statement.
In 2014, Russian forces operating in Ukraine – despite the Kremlin’s denials – were sent without identification marks on their uniforms.
Last year, when President Vladimir Putin was asked about Russia using North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine, he did not deny it. He said it was Russia’s “sovereign decision”.
This was reported by the South Korean intelligence agency in December A North Korean soldier believed to be the first to be captured while supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine has died after he was captured alive by Ukrainian forces.
Separately, the White House said North Korean forces were experiencing massive casualties.
The Security Service of Ukraine said it was “currently carrying out the necessary investigative actions to determine all the circumstances of the participation of the DPRK army in Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
“The investigation is being conducted under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General’s Office under Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (planning, preparation, initiation and waging of an aggressive war).”