Russian soldiers call the practice a sacrifice to Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch from Slavic folklore who feasts on her victims.

A massive Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine over the weekend prompted a direct military response from NATO. Polish and other allied jets were scrambled as a precaution during the hours-long barrage.

Russia was forced to downsize its celebration parades honouring the navy on Sunday amid security threats from continuing Ukrainian drone attacks, Kremlin officials said.Annual parades of Russian warships to mark the Navy Day were cancelled in St Petersburg,

Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded four Ukrainian cities in nighttime attacks that officials said killed a child.

President Vladimir Putin joined mourners on Thursday to say farewell to his former classmate Irina Podnosova, the head of Russia's Supreme Court, who died earlier this week aged 71.

The Kremlin has been in a state of high alert for some time, and President Putin has been eager to reassert Russia's nuclear threat to the West.

Russian heavy metal and goth music fans in Russia could face prison after Vladimir Putin banned "satanists". The Kremlin's top court has outlawed the "international satanism movement" as an extremist and terrorist group - despite no such group existing.

On July 22, U.S. and Canadian jets under NORAD command intercepted a formation of two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers and two Su-35 fighters after they entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.