Kyiv offered to exchange captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia, and lambasted Slovakia as its energy row with Kremlin-friendly European Union states intensified.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the capture of two North Koreans fighting for Russia in its Kursk region, and said Russian president Vladimir Putin would sign a strategic partnership agreement with Iran when its leader visited Moscow this week.
“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more ... There should be no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North Korea,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong-un’s soldiers to him if he can organise their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia,” he added, referring to North Korea’s dictator. “For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available.”
Two captured soldiers, whom Ukraine and South Korea said were North Koreans, were shown answering questions in a video released by Kyiv. Through a translator, one said he had been told that he was going for training rather than into combat.
Ukraine, South Korea and the United States say North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia, several thousand of whom have been deployed to Kursk, a region bordering Ukraine where Kyiv’s troops seized swathes of territory last summer.
Lee Seong-kweun, a deputy on the intelligence committee of South Korea’s parliament, said after a briefing from the country’s national intelligence service (NIS) that about 300 North Koreans had been killed and 2,700 wounded in the fighting.
The NIS said the “massive casualties” resulted from the North Koreans’ “lack of understanding of modern warfare”, including their “useless” attempts to shoot down long-range Ukrainian drones.
Ukraine has urged its allies to respond more strongly to the widening scope of the war, in which Russia receives shells, missiles and soldiers from North Korea and attack drones from Iran.
The Kremlin announced that Mr Putin would welcome Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday and sign a comprehensive strategic partnership, providing for deeper co-operation in fields ranging from trade and investment to defence and security.
A delegation from Slovakia’s populist government held talks in Moscow about energy supplies, following the end of Russian gas flows to EU states via Ukraine this month due to Kyiv’s refusal to extend a transit deal.
Hungary and Slovakia, which want closer ties with Russia, have denounced Kyiv’s decision, while the likes of Poland and the Czech Republic have backed Ukraine and criticised Slovakia for courting Mr Putin and failing to diversify its gas imports.
Mr Zelenskiy said it was “an obvious mistake” by Slovak prime minister Robert Fico “to believe that his shadowy schemes with Moscow could go on indefinitely”.
“We offered our assistance to the people of Slovakia during their adaptation to the absence of Russian gas transit, but Fico arrogantly refused ... But the real problem is that he bet on Moscow, not on his own country, not on a united Europe, and certainly not on common sense,” he added.
Poland denied a claim from Slovakia that it closed its airspace to the plane flying Slovak officials to Moscow, while Moscow accused Ukraine of launching drones at infrastructure of the TurkStream pipeline in southern Russia that carries gas to Turkey and parts of Europe.
Kyiv did not respond to the allegation, but Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said that “any action that threatens the security of our energy supply must be seen as an attack on sovereignty”.
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