Ukraine says it has captured two North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia

Ukrainian authorities announced on Saturday the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia, saying they were the first soldiers captured alive since Pyongyang sent troops to help Moscow in the war effort.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two soldiers, who were wounded, were captured in the Kursk region of western Russia, where Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold on to territory they seized during a surprise cross-border incursion last summer.

In a post on various social media channels, Mr. Zelensky said that the soldiers received medical care, as required by the Geneva Conventions, and were transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, for interrogation.

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service (SBU) said one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday. She did not provide details about where or when the second was captured, but said they were the first North Koreans fighting against Ukraine in Kursk to be captured.

The interrogations are conducted through Korean translators in coordination with the South Korean intelligence service, according to the Ukrainian Security Service. The South Korean embassy in Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Russia nor North Korea had any immediate comment.

The Ukrainian intelligence agency and Mr. Zelensky shared photos and videos of the two soldiers, showing one with bandages around his jaw and the other with bandaged hands.

According to the rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, governments are supposed to protect a prisoner of war from becoming a “public curiosity,” a concept that cannot be accepted. It is sometimes interpreted as not providing In any public place.

Heavy fighting has broken out in Kursk as Russian forces attempt to defeat Ukrainian forces and push them back across the border. Supported by over 11,000 North Korean soldiersRussian forces regained nearly half of the territory they lost in the region.

But Ukraine controls more than 150 square miles of territory inside Russia. The White House said that North Korean forces suffered heavy losses.

The Biden administration said last month More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers He was killed or wounded while fighting Ukrainian forces in Kursk over the course of a week – and some chose to commit suicide rather than surrender.