KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian forces have captured two North Korean soldiers who were fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia's Kursk border region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Saturday.
His comments came just days after Ukraine began pressing ahead with a new offensive on Kursk to hold onto the land it captured in August's lightning strike, the first time it captured Russian territory since World War II. It was about.
Moscow's counterattack has forced Ukrainian forces to expand, demoralize and inflict thousands of casualties, and recapture more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk occupied by Ukraine.
“Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in Kursk. The two soldiers were injured but survived and were taken to Kiev where they are in contact with Ukrainian security services,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the messaging app Telegram. mentioned in.
He shared a photo of two men resting on a cot in a room with bars on the windows. They both had bandages wrapped around them, one around their jaw and the other around their hands and wrists.
President Zelenskiy said it would be “not easy” to capture the soldiers alive. He claimed that Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk were trying to hide the presence of North Korean soldiers, including by killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid capture and interrogation by Kiev. .
Ukraine's Security Service SBU provided further information about the two soldiers on Saturday. One of the men had no documents at all, and the other had a Russian military ID card in the name of a man from Tuva, a Russian region bordering Mongolia, the statement said.
“Since the prisoners cannot speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, communication with them is carried out through Korean interpreters working with South Korean intelligence services,” the statement said.
According to the SBU, one of the soldiers claimed he was told he was going to Russia for training, not to fight against Ukraine.
The agency said both men were receiving medical treatment under the Geneva Convention and were being investigated “in cooperation with South Korean intelligence agencies.”
A senior Ukrainian military official announced last month that hundreds of North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in fighting with Russian forces in Kursk.
The official was giving the first significant estimate of North Korea's casualties, which comes as North Korea relies on Russia to support its nearly three-year war with its much smaller neighbor. This comes weeks after Ukraine announced it was sending in 12,000 to 12,000 troops.
The White House and Pentagon confirmed last month that North Korean troops are fighting on the front lines, primarily in infantry positions. They are fighting with Russian military units and, in some cases, fighting on their own around Kursk.
