Two border pressures facing Europe in October 2024

What was Europe being asked to absorb as of 14 October 2024? Two separate pressures were in the news in the preceding days, one on the battlefield and one at the border.

On 13 October 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that North Korean troops had been deployed to Ukraine to fight alongside the Russian military. The claim concerned foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On 12 October 2024, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked the European Union to accept a provisional suspension of migrants' right to asylum, in order to control irregular immigration from Belarus. His request followed Germany's decision to tighten border controls and a call by its Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, for EU-wide solutions. Human rights activists condemned the proposal as unconstitutional.

The two developments were distinct, but both concerned the security of Europe's eastern edge: who was fighting in Ukraine, and how Poland proposed to handle arrivals from Belarus.