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What did Kyiv say about silence over North Korea?
Summary
A look back at the days around 4 November 2024, when Ukraine's president criticised allies and Kharkiv counted its casualties.
What did Ukraine's leadership want from its partners on 4 November 2024? The reports from the days just before that date point to frustration over the response to North Korean troops and the continuing toll of Russian strikes.
On 31 October 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemned the United States and European nations for what he described as a "zero response" to Russia's deployment of North Korean soldiers against Ukraine. The criticism centred on the lack of any visible reaction from Ukraine's partners to the foreign troops.
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, escalating a conflict that dated back to 2014. Foreign support had been central to Ukraine's defence. Later tallies showed that, as of 30 June 2025, Ukraine had received approximately €64.6 billion in military aid from the United States and about €84.7 billion from other international allies, largely through drawdowns of existing stockpiles. As those stocks were used up, the allied industrial base was gradually drawn in to supply Ukraine.
Seen together, the two reports from 31 October 2024 show the pressures of the moment: a political appeal to allies over a new foreign presence on the battlefield, and the human cost in a Ukrainian city under bombardment.
