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Kursk reports of North Korean troops emerge
Summary
A look back at 25 October 2024, when Ukraine said North Korean units had entered active combat zones in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
What did Ukraine say about North Korean forces on 25 October 2024? Kyiv reported that the first North Korean units had entered the active warzones in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
The North Korean soldiers were reportedly under the command of Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. The report placed foreign troops directly within the area of the 2024 Kursk offensive, adding a new element to foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A diplomatic backdrop
Two days earlier, on 23 October 2024, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. It was the first bilateral meeting between India and China in five years, and it followed the 2020 border skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops.
The two developments were separate, but both unfolded in the same week and both were tied to events on Russian territory: one on the battlefield in Kursk Oblast, the other at a summit hosted in Kazan.
