Russia has leaned on its increasingly close ally North Korea for supplies of artillery shells and ballistic missiles to prosecute a grinding war in Ukraine. In October, the partnership entered a new phase as Pyongyang dispatched thousands of soldiers to bolster Russia’s armed forces.

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

The wounded fighters were taken for questioning to Kyiv, authorities said, where they could reveal details of Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow.