Ukraine captures first North Korean prisoners of war as Russia advances in Donetsk

Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers and taken them prisoner for the first time, transporting them to Kyiv for questioning in what the country’s security services say is “irrefutable evidence” of Pyongyang’s involvement in Russia’s war.

Both soldiers were captured on 9 January in the Russian border region of Kursk, Kyiv said.

Volodymyr Zelensky posted pictures of the two, saying “the world needs to know the truth about what is happening”.

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Ukraine’s security service, known as the SBU, said one of the two had fake Russian identification documents. A third North Korean soldier was captured last month but died from injuries.

Russia and North Korea both deny their troops are working together in Kursk; Britain, Ukraine, the United States and South Korea all believe otherwise.

Previously, it was reported that many of roughly 12,000 North Korean soldiers believed to have deployed to Russia had been handed fake Russian documents to conceal their true identity.

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Communication with the two prisoners, reportedly born in 2005 and 1999, is being done through translators and in cooperation with South Korean intelligence.

The SBU added that one of the soldiers claimed he had been told by his seniors that he was deploying to a training mission, only to find himself fighting on the frontline in Kursk. The claims echo previous reports that Russian soldiers believed they were heading to training missions only to find themselves fighting in Ukraine.

“This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North Korean military personnel usually execute their wounded to erase any evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote. “I have instructed the Security Service of Ukraine to grant journalists access to these prisoners.”

Meanwhile, the Russian military claimed to have taken control of the town of Shevchenko in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, located near the outskirts of the city of Pokrovsk.

The city has been the object of Russia’s wider offensive in the Donetsk region for months.

It is a linchpin of the region’s defence, sitting on key logistical routes feeding the rest of the wider area.

Russia often prematurely claims control of towns and cities in Ukraine but DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker with close ties to the military, records Shevchenko as almost completely occupied.

The Russian defence ministry posted footage appearing to show a soldier raising the country’s national flag on top of the heavily damaged roof of a multi-storey building in the town.

At least two additional videos were being circulated among Russian military bloggers on Telegram purporting to show soldiers holding up national or brigade flags in the town, though one video was posted several days ago. In both, the soldiers are standing among ruins.