Key points
- Ukraine-released video shows men in hospital bunks
- Seoul confirms Ukrainian claims
- Russia denies North Koreans fighting for it
KYIV: Ukraine said Saturday that it was questioning two wounded soldiers it claimed were North Koreans captured while fighting for Moscow in Russia’s Kursk region.
“Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
“These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived and were brought to Kyiv, and are talking to SBU investigators,” he added, referring to the country’s security service.
Kyiv did not present direct evidence the men were North Korean and AFP was unable to independently verify their nationality.
Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.” – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Our soldiers have captured North Korean military personnel in the Kursk region. Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine.
This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North… pic.twitter.com/5J0hqbarP6
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 11, 2025
Neither Russia nor North Korea has reacted to the claim.
The SBU said the men had told interrogators they were experienced army soldiers, and one said he was sent to Russia for training, not to fight.
It released a video showing the two men in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw. A doctor at the detention centre said the first man also had a broken leg.
Ukraine released no audio recording of the prisoners but said they were talking through Korean interpreters working “in cooperation” with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).
AFP reporters in Seoul have contacted the NIS for comment.
Russia and North Korea
Russia and North Korea have boosted their military ties since Moscow’s invasion, though neither has confirmed that Pyongyang’s forces are fighting for Moscow in the Kursk region.
Zelensky said last month that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” there, while Seoul put the figure at 1,000.
In December, Kyiv said it had taken several North Koreans captive but they had died from serious wounds.
Zelensky said Saturday it was difficult to capture North Koreans alive because “Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded” to cover up “evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war”.
He said he would provide media access to the prisoners of war because “the world needs to know what is happening”.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X that the “first North Korean prisoners of war are now in Kyiv”, calling them “regular DPRK troops, not mercenaries” in reference to the country’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Russia claims gains
Russia’s army said Saturday that it had won more territory in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region northwest of the logistics hub of Kurakhove, which it claimed to have captured Monday.
The defence ministry said troops had “liberated” Shevchenko, a rural settlement about 10 kilometres (six miles) northwest of Kurakhove.
“Now Russian troops can move further towards the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the RIA Novosti state news agency reported.
Russia claims to have annexed the Donetsk region, which it refers to as the Donetsk People’s Republic, but it does not control the whole region.
Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Kurakhove, which had around 18,000 inhabitants before Russia launched its 2022 offensive.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Saturday that troops had stopped Russia’s offensive actions in the area, including around Kurakhove.
Russia is also moving close to taking the vital frontline city of Pokrovsk north of Kurakhove.
Donetsk’s regional governor Vadym Filashkin said a 78-year-old man had been killed Saturday morning by shelling of Pokrovsk.
Highest honour
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a soldier with the country’s highest honour for bravery after a widely posted video showed him killing a Ukrainian opponent in hand-to-hand combat.
Putin awarded Corporal Andrei Grigoryev the Hero of Russia medal for his “courage and heroism”, the Kremlin said in a statement.
