A captured North Korean soldier has revealed he believed he was traveling to Russia for training exercises rather than combat deployment in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on 11 January.
During interrogation in Kyiv, the soldier, born in 2005, told SBU investigators that he arrived in Russia in autumn 2024 expecting only to participate in military exercises. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirms he testified to learning about his actual war deployment only after arriving in Russia.
The soldier was one of two North Korean troops captured on 9 January 2025 in Russia’s Kursk region, with one detained by Special Operations Forces tactical group No. 84 and another by Ukrainian paratroopers, according to SBU.
“The prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English, or Russian, so communication with them is carried out through Korean translators in cooperation with South Korean intelligence,” SBU noted.
The younger soldier was found carrying a Russian military ID, which SBU says was issued to him in Russia during autumn 2024. The Russian news Telegram channel Agenstvo Novosti identified the document as belonging to Antonin Aranchin, a real Russian citizen from Tuva Republic born in October 1998. The channel’s “analysis showed that the data of a real Russian citizen was used to create the fake identity.”
The second captured soldier, born in 1999 and identified as a sniper-reconnaissance specialist, had no documentation when captured and is communicating through writing due to a jaw injury, SBU reports.
NIS reports that the captured soldier revealed North Korean troops suffered “considerable losses” and that he had gone without food and water for four to five days before capture. According to SBU, he had served in the North Korean military since 2021 as a rifleman.
The soldier detailed that North Korean combat units underwent only one week of joint training with Russian forces before deployment, SBU reports.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that capturing North Koreans alive has been challenging because “Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded” to hide evidence of North Korea’s involvement.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha emphasized that the captured individuals are regular North Korean armed forces members, not mercenaries.
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