Ukraine says it captured 2 North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia
LA TimesHonour Guard fire into the air during the funeral ceremony for a Ukrainian service member in a cemetery in Kyiv on Friday. Ukraine’s forces have captured two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk border region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday. Zelensky said capturing the soldiers alive was “not easy.” He asserted that Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk have tried to conceal the presence of North Korean soldiers, including by killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid their capture and interrogation. The agency said the men were provided with medical care in line with the Geneva Conventions, and are being investigated “in cooperation with South Korean intelligence.” A senior Ukrainian military official said last month that a couple hundred North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk have been killed or wounded in battle. Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022; that came years after Russia’s 2014 invasion and illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula The White House and Pentagon last month confirmed that the North Korean forces have been battling on the front lines in largely infantry positions.