Ukrainian authorities announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia on Saturday, the first to be captured safely since Pyongyang sent troops to help Moscow's war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the two wounded soldiers were captured in the Kursk region of western Russia, where the Ukrainian military fought to keep the territories seized during an unexpected cross-border intervention last summer.
In a post on various social media channels, Mr. Zelensky said that the soldiers received medical care in accordance with the requirements of the Geneva Conventions and were taken to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, for interrogation.
Ukraine's internal intelligence service SBU said one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday. He did not give details about when and where the latter were captured, but said they were the first captured by North Koreans fighting against Ukraine in Kursk.
According to the SBU, the interrogations are conducted through Korean interpreters in coordination with the South Korean intelligence service. The South Korean embassy in Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor North Korea had an immediate comment.
Ukraine's intelligence agency and Mr. Zelensky shared photos and videos of the two soldiers, one of whom was shown with a bandage on his chin and the other with bandaged hands.
Under the Geneva Conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners of war, governments must protect prisoners of war from becoming a matter of “public interest”. sometimes it is interpreted as not presenting them in any social setting.
Fierce fighting rages in Kursk as Russian forces try to crush Ukrainian troops and drive them back across the border. More than 11,000 supported North Korean soldiersRussian troops have recaptured almost half of the territory they lost in the area.
But Ukraine hangs over 150 square miles inside Russia. The White House said North Korean forces suffered heavy casualties.
The Biden administration said last month More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers within a week were killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk – some of whom chose suicide rather than surrender.