North Korean soldiers sent to bolster Moscow’s forces after Ukraine launched a lightning-fast incursion and seized territory in Russia’s Kursk region over the summer.

The North Korean POWs reportedly said they had been told by their superiors they were heading for a training exercise, only to find themselves fighting in Kursk, according to the SBU

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the soldiers were captured in the western Kursk region, where Ukraine has been fighting to hold on to territory it seized last summer.