A wounded soldier, suspected to be North Korean and captured by Ukrainian forces, is seen in this photo posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Telegram, Jan. 11. Yonhap

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Earlier this month, Zelenskyy disclosed that his forces had captured the North Korean soldiers in Russia's western front-line region of Kursk, sharing videos of their interrogation on the social media platform X.

In the latest video posted on Monday (local time), one of the captured soldiers said he arrived in Russia aboard a ship with around 100 others before being transported inland by rail with them.

"Even after coming here, I didn't know that I would be fighting the Ukrainian people," the man said in the video in Korean. The video could not be independently verified.

He said some North Korean troops were taught how to use Russian weapons and equipment but that he himself did not receive such training.

The soldier, believed to be born in 2005, said he joined the military when he was 17, as most North Korean men do after graduating from school, and was affiliated with a company under the North Korean military's reconnaissance bureau.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine will confirm details of North Korea's involvement in the war through continued interrogation of the soldiers.

"Intelligence data on the movement of such troops to Russian territory, their training and complete information isolation have been confirmed by the prisoners," he wrote on X. "All the facts about North Korea's involvement in this war will be established."

North Korea is estimated to have sent some 11,000 troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine. Of those, 300 are believed to have been killed, with some 2,700 others wounded, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers last week. (Yonhap)