North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday appeared to acknowledge for the first time that the troops he sent to fight Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin have suffered losses en masse.

In a ceremony depicting the faces of 100 North Korean soldiers and attended by their family members, Kim honored the “heroic” soldiers while he hugged children and appeared tearful.

Kim first acknowledged that he sent thousands of troops to fight for Putin in Russia’s Kursk region in April before then acknowledging there had been some deaths in early July when he was shown mourning over coffins with North Korean flags draped over them. 

North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un hugs surviving soldiers sent to fight for Vladimir Putin in Kursk region bordering Ukraine,  in ceremony in North Korea on Aug. 22, 2025. (East2West)

The Ukrainian General Staff on Thursday said that Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), along with other unspecified Ukrainian forces, conducted long-range drone strikes against the Novoshakhtinsky Oil Refinery, which supplies Russian forces operating in Ukraine and is one of southern Russia’s largest oil product producers, processing some 7.5 million tons of oil annually, reported the Institute for the Study of War. 

Up to 12,000 North Korean troops were sent to Kursk in the fall of 2024, before another 3,000 were deployed in early 2025 to counter Ukraine’s operation. It is unclear how many North Korean troops remain in the southwest Russian region. 

Reports earlier this year suggested that North Korea may look to send additional troops to aid Moscow by the end of the summer, though it is unclear if any additional foreign soldiers have been deployed to Russia. 

North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un hugs surviving soldiers sent to fight for Vladimir Putin in Kursk region bordering Ukraine, in ceremony in North Korea on Aug. 22, 2025. (East2West)

On Friday, Kim suggested that North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine could be coming to a close and hailed the “victorious conclusion of overseas military operations.”

Though it is also unclear if this means troops already deployed to Russia could also be returned home soon.