Zelensky says Ukraine captured two wounded North Korean soldiers

Ukraine won two injured North Korean soldiers With battlefield in Kursk Oblast, Russia and transported them to Kiev, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.

“Two soldiers, although injured, survived and were taken to Kiev, where they are currently in communication with the Security Service of Ukraine” – Zelensky wrote on Xalong with a series of photos of prisoners.

For the first time since Pyongyang, Ukraine said it had detained North Korean troops deployed approximately 11,000 troops according to the United States and its allies, Russia’s support at the end of last year. Neither Russia nor North Korea has publicly confirmed the troop deployment.

“Like all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving necessary medical attention,” Zelensky said, noting that their capture was “not an easy task,” adding that Russian and North Korean soldiers “usually execute the wounded to remove any evidence of involvement North Korea into war against Ukraine.

One of the photos published by Zelensky showed a man with bandaged arms and a striped sweater draped over his shoulders. The photo shows another man with swollen lips and a bandage wrapped around his head.

Two other photos showed the cover and inside pages of the Russian document.

In December, the Ukrainian military warned that Russia was trying to “conceal the presence of North Korean military personnel by issuing them false documents.”

It said the military records of North Koreans killed in the conflicts were “missing all stamps and photographs” and that the signatures on the documents were in Korean, which “indicates the true origins of these soldiers.”

In October, South Korean intelligence services said North Korean special forces soldiers were given Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons, as well as false identification documents to make it appear they came from the Russian Far East, where people may resemble North Koreans.

Zelensky said he had instructed Ukraine’s security service to allow journalists access to the prisoners.

“The world needs to know the truth about what is happening,” he said.

Zelensky said last week that 4,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have launched a cross-border incursion since August.

That same month, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said several North Korean soldiers took her own life instead of surrendering to Ukrainian forces.

He added that the suicides occurred “probably out of fear of retaliation against their families in North Korea if they were captured.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com