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Zelenskyy's complaint over North Korean troops, Kharkiv strike
Summary
A retrospective on reports dated 31 October 2024, as Kyiv criticised Western silence and a glide bomb hit a residential block in Kharkiv.
What did Kyiv say about its partners' reaction to North Korean soldiers, and what happened in Kharkiv? As reported on the eve of 1 November 2024, two developments set the tone for the day.
On 31 October 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemned the United States and European nations for what he called a "zero response" to Russia's deployment of North Korean soldiers against Ukraine. The criticism concerned foreign involvement in the war, and it was aimed at Ukraine's own partners as much as at Moscow.
The same day, a Russian glide bomb struck a residential building in Kharkiv. According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, three people were killed and 35 others injured.
The wider backdrop
The war had begun as a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Western support was already substantial. Later tallies showed that, as of 30 June 2025, Ukraine had received about €64.6 billion in military aid from the United States and about €84.7 billion from other international allies. Those later figures were not available on 1 November 2024, but they show the scale of the assistance behind the debate over how allies should respond to Russia's widening foreign backing.
