Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes his opening remarks at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, Jan. 9, 2025, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
(Tribune News Service) — Ukraine is interrogating two North Korean soldiers captured while they were fighting for Russia in the Kursk region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The pair, “though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X that included photos of the alleged soldiers.
Zelenskyy said he’d instructed Ukraine’s security service to grant journalists access to the prisoners. “The world needs to know the truth about what is happening,” Zelenskyy said.
In a posting on its website, the Security Service of Ukraine said one soldier carried a military ID card issued in the name of another person, registered in the Russia region of Tuva, which lies between Mongolia and Siberia. The other was said to have no identifying documents.
Under interrogation, the soldier said he’d been issued the ID in Russia in the autumn, and that he understood he was going to Russia for training, not deployment against Ukraine, according to SSU.
Neither man speaks Russian, Ukrainian or English, according to the security service. “Communication with them is carried out through interpreters of Korea, in cooperation with South Korean security officials.
Speaking at the Ramstein Group meeting in Germany this week, Zelenskyy said about 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine. The estimates can’t be verified.
U.S. officials said in mid-December that North Korea had suffered “several hundred” casualties in clashes with Ukrainian troops, out of possibly 12,000 deployed.
Kyiv’s forces a week ago launch a fresh offensive in Kursk, where they’ve held territory for several months.
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