“The world needs to know”: for the first time – Zelensky returned North Korean soldiers

Ukraine captured for the first time two wounded North Korean soldiers who fought in the ranks of the Russian army in the Kursk region, the President of Ukraine announced yesterday Volodymyr Zelensky on Instagram. The captives, who were transferred to Kiev and are being interrogated by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), provide “unequivocal proof”, added Zelensky, of North Korea’s involvement in the war.

According to Zelensky, capturing the soldiers was a particularly complex task, since “Russian forces and other North Korean soldiers usually execute their wounded, in order to erase any evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.” The Ukrainian president instructed security officials to allow journalists access to the captives, saying that “the world needs to know the truth about what is happening.”

At the same time, the Ministry of Defense of Russia reported today that its forces took over two villages in Ukraine: Yantrana in the Donetsk region and Kalinova in the Kharkiv region. In addition, according to the ministry’s statement, during the last day the Russian forces carried out attacks on 139 Ukrainian targets, including military airports, concentrations of Ukrainian forces, and against vehicles, using fighter jets, UAVs, missiles and artillery.

According to the SBU, one of the captured soldiers was captured by Ukrainian special forces, and the other by Ukrainian paratroopers. The two were captured in the small western part of Russia that has been controlled by Ukraine since August. The soldiers do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, so the investigation is carried out through Korean interpreters, in cooperation with the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.

In the photos published by Zelensky, one of the soldiers is seen lying in a bed in a detention facility with his arms bandaged, and the other with swollen lips and bandages around his head. According to the documents found in their possession, one of them was born in 1998. Ukrainian officials previously warned that North Korean soldiers would deploy with Russian documents to disguise their nationality.

Zelensky noted this week that at least 4,000 North Korean soldiers have already been killed or wounded since arriving on the battlefield in mid-December. According to Ukrainian estimates, Russia and North Korea, who signed a mutual defense agreement last November, sent at least 11,000 North Korean soldiers to the front in order to help retake territory controlled by Ukraine.