Zelenskyy ‘ready to hand over’ N Korean troops who kidnap Ukrainian POWs | Russia-Ukraine war News

The offer comes after Ukraine announced it would capture two North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv is “ready to hand over” North Korean military abductees in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia.

The proposal on Sunday came a few hours after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed Ukraine’s announcement that it had captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.

Writing in X, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is willing to provide troops to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “if he can organize the exchange of our heroes imprisoned in Russia”.

The Ukrainian leader said “there is no doubt that there will be many” North Korean soldiers caught up in the war. “There is still time for our soldiers to be able to kidnap others,” he said.

Ukraine said on Saturday that the two soldiers were injured fighting with its forces in the Kursk region of Russia. It was the first time Kyiv has announced the capture of a North Korean soldier alive since entering the nearly three-year war last fall.

Ukrainian and Western research says that up to 11,000 troops from Russia-allied North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow’s military.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their existence.

Zelenskyy said that Russia and the North Korean military have suffered heavy losses.

He posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who were introduced as North Korean soldiers. One is lying in bed with his hands bandaged, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.

One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know that he was fighting against Ukraine and was told that he was training.

He said he hid in a shelter during the attack and was found a few days later. He said that if he is told to return to North Korea, he will return to Ukraine, but he is ready to stay in Ukraine if he is given the chance.

Al Jazeera could not verify the video.

“One of them [soldiers] one expressed the desire to stay in Ukraine, the other to return to Korea,” said Zelenskyy in a television statement.

He added that for North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return home, there may be other options available, and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korea.” [language] you will be given that opportunity.”

He did not provide specific details.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s NIS, told AFP news agency that it “confirmed that Ukrainian soldiers captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 at the Kursk battlefield in Russia”.

The NIS said one of the captured soldiers revealed that he received military training from the Russian army after arriving there in November.

“At first he believed he had been sent for training, realizing when he arrived in Russia that he had been deployed,” the NIS said. The soldier also said that North Korean forces suffered “heavy losses during the war”.

Neither Russia nor North Korea have responded to the intelligence accounts.

Zelenskyy said last month that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers were “killed or wounded” fighting Russia. But Seoul put the number at 1,000.

The NIS told South Korean lawmakers last month that “many North Korean casualties” have already resulted from Ukrainian missile and drone attacks and training accidents, with the highest level “at least at the level of a general”.

Due to losses among its forces, North Korea is preparing to send more to Ukraine, according to the military in Seoul.