A North Korean soldier captured by the AFU. Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky, Telegram

Two wounded North Korean soldiers who were captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Russia’s partially occupied Kursk region have been transported to Kyiv for interrogation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

“This wasn’t easy. Usually the Russians or other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything they can to cover up any evidence of North Korean involvement in the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president also released a military ID belonging to one of the two prisoners of war, which was issued in the Russian republic of Tyva, in southern Siberia.

On Monday the AFU General Staff claimed that some 4,000 of the 12,000 North Korean troops sent by Pyongyang to bolster Russia’s war effort in October had already been killed or injured.

The New York Times reported in early November that Moscow had sent about 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers to the Kursk region in preparation for a counterattack to reclaim areas seized by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) since they launched a surprise incursion into Russia in August.