Ukrainian defenders in the Kursk Region have captured two North Korean soldiers.
"These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv and are talking to SBU investigators," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in Telegram. The SBU added that in this way, the Security Service of Ukraine, which documents and investigates relevant crimes, received indisputable evidence of the DPRK's participation in Russia's war against our country.
The Special Operations Forces noted that after evacuating from the battlefield, the Special Operations Forces operators provided one of the DPRK prisoners with first aid.
The prisoners are held in proper conditions that meet the requirements of international law. According to the doctor of the detention centre where the prisoners are being held, they are completely healthy somatically. However, one of them has surgical pathology. The first one has a maxillofacial injury, a dentist will treat him. The other has an open shin injury.
On 9 January 2025, one of the soldiers was captured by fighters of the 84th Special Forces tactical group, and the other by paratroopers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted that this was not an easy task, as Russians and other North Korean soldiers usually finish off their wounded and do everything to prevent evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against Ukraine.
"I am grateful to our soldiers of the Tactical Group No. 84 of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and our paratroopers who captured these two people. Like all prisoners, these two soldiers from North Korea are being provided with the necessary medical care," the Head of State stressed and noted that he had instructed the Security Service of Ukraine to provide journalists with access to these soldiers, because the world needs to know what is happening.
The prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, so communication with them is carried out through Korean interpreters in cooperation with South Korea's LDC intelligence.
At the time of his capture, one of the foreigners had a Russian military ID card issued in the name of another person registered in the Republic of Tuva, Russia. The other had no documents at all.
During the interrogation, the DPRK soldier who was found to have the military ID card told the SBU that he had been issued this document in Russia in the autumn of 2024. At that time, he said, some of North Korea's combat units had been training with Russian groups for one week.
He himself said that he was born in 2005, held the position of a rifleman and had been serving in North Korea since 2021. It is noteworthy that the prisoner, like the Russian military at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, emphasises that he was allegedly going for training, not to wage war against Ukraine.
Another prisoner of war confirmed the testimony of his "partner". He gave part of his answers to the questions in writing, as he had an injured jaw.
According to preliminary data, he was born in 1999 and has been serving in the DPRK army since 2016 as a sniper.
The SBU is currently conducting the necessary investigative measures to establish all the circumstances of the DPRK military's participation 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, unleashing and waging an aggressive war).
- At the end of December last year, South Korean intelligence confirmed that Ukrainian troops had captured a wounded North Korean soldier.
- According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, North Korea has already lost about 4,000 soldiers in the war on the side of Russia. However, Pyongyang is gaining experience to possibly wage a war in the Indo-Pacific region. The White House also speaks of massive losses of DPRK troops in Russia's war against Ukraine.
- The head of Ukraine says that North Korea has sent about 12,000 of its troops to Russia. Additionally, the DPRK may send another 30,000-40,000 people, or even 500,000.