Zelensky Offers Prisoner Swap: North Korean Soldiers for Ukrainian POWs

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he is willing to exchange captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) being held in Russia.

Zelensky made the offer on Sunday, a day after Ukraine announced that it had captured two North Korean soldiers who were wounded while fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed that the Ukrainian military had captured two North Korean soldiers on January 13 in the Kursk region.

Zelensky stated that Ukraine is ready to hand over the North Korean soldiers to Pyongyang in exchange for the return of Ukrainian POWs held in Russia. He also hinted that there may be more North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine in the future.

The Ukrainian president posted a video of an interrogation of the two North Korean prisoners of war, in which one of them claimed that he did not know he was going to fight in a war with Ukraine and that his commanders had told him it was just a training exercise.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has acknowledged that North Koreans have been deployed to fight against Ukraine. However, the two countries have boosted their military cooperation since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine

Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of relying on military support from Pyongyang, saying that Putin “cannot manage without military support from Pyongyang”.