Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is willing to hand captured North Korean soldiers to Pyongyang in exchange for the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) held in Russia.
"Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un's soldiers to him if he can organise their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia," Zelensky wrote on X.
The Ukrainian prosecution service says that at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been executed by Russian forces since the start of the war - 127 of them in 2024.
Zelensky's announcement comes just one day after The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared it ‘received indisputable evidence of the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) participation in Russia's war against our country.’
SBU said in a statement that the two men are in Kyiv and receiving medical care after they were wounded fighting against Kyiv's troops in Russia's Kursk region.
No international media outlets have been able to verify Ukraine's account of the prisoners and their capture.
According to SBU, at the time of capture, one of the soldiers had a Russian military ID card issued in the name of another person with registration in the Republic of Tuva, Russian Federation while the other had no documentation.
During the interrogations supported by the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), the documented soldier told the SBU that he had been issued the document in Russia in 2024 where he claims North Korea's combat units had one-week interoperability training with Russian military groups.
Following the capture of the two unidentified soldiers Zelensky added, "There should be no doubt left that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North Korea".
Ukraine, the U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly accused the DPRK of providing more than 10,000 soldiers to support Russia’s war efforts.
However, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has confirmed that North Koreans have been deployed to fight against Ukraine, despite their military cooperation increasing since the start of the war in 2022.
SBU said they are “currently investigating the DPRK’s military participation in the war, under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office under Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war).”
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