ROSTOV-ON-DON, August 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces are leaving the dead bodies of their European mercenary comrades on the fields of Russia’s Kursk Region, a senior Russian lawmaker said.

"True, numerous fallen mercenaries and Ukrainian soldiers lie in the fields over there (in the Kursk Region - TASS). Nobody retrieves them, especially in this hot weather, they simply don’t bother. <…> They [the enemy] see this and most Ukrainian units surrendered yesterday and the day before yesterday," Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, told TASS. While both Polish and German mercenaries still refuse to surrender, they have been retreating to the second tier, "therefore the Kursk battle will soon be won," he added.

According to the legislator, the West needed the Ukrainian incursion into the borderline Russian region of Kursk to test how well Russia’s border is protected. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky himself would not have ventured the assault if left to his own devices.

"This wasn’t Zelensky’s idea, as he would never have thought of that, he just kind of fell into it, since commanders and instructors had just returned from training in England," Vodolatsky explained.

Meanwhile, in the Kursk area, Russia’s forces have acted to minimize Russian losses in terms of personnel, the homes of locals, and civilians who refused to leave, the parliamentarian said. Russian soldiers are delivering pinpoint strikes on groups of Nazi fighters who he said are scattered across forests.