In a statement posted on X, Zelenskyy said he had instructed Ukraine's security service to allow journalists access to the captured soldiers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said forces operating in the Kursk region of Russia have captured two North Korean soldiers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine's forces have captured two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk border region.

Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the war last autumn.

It is Ukraine’s first confirmation it has detained North Korean troops since they were deployed last year. The move could shed light on Pyongyang’s role in the war.

Russia has claimed that its forces captured a battered but strategic town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a day after Kyiv launched a counterattack in the Russian region of Kursk.