Kursk and Kazan: what was reported before 28 October 2024
A look back at two developments reported in the days before 28 October 2024: North Korean units in Kursk Oblast and a Modi–Xi meeting in Kazan.
What had been reported by 28 October 2024 about North Korean troops and Russia's war? On 25 October 2024, Ukraine reported that the first North Korean units had entered the active warzones in Russia's Kursk Oblast. The soldiers were reportedly under the command of Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov.
The report formed part of the wider coverage of foreign involvement in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and of the 2024 Kursk offensive.
A separate diplomatic development took place in Russia two days before that report. 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. It was the first bilateral meeting between India and China in five years, and it came after the 2020 border skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops.
Together, the two items showed how events in and around Russia were drawing in other states in the days before 28 October 2024.
