A woman passes by an art installation "Houses of the Earth: Theatre of Nature" by Russian artist Andrey Syailev during the Archstoyanie 2024 festival in the village of Nikola-Lenivets, Kaluga region, Russia on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





Giant panda Ru Yi is seen at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, Russia, July 31, 2024. Giant pandas Ru Yi and Ding Ding arrived in Moscow on April 29, 2019 for a 15-year scientific program. Ru Yi, born in July 31, 2016 in southwest China's Sichuan Province, celebrated its birthday here on Wednesday. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)





A Russian paratrooper kisses a cross during a religion service at the Church of Prophet Elijah at the 45th Special Forces Regiment of the Russian Airborne Forces in Sokolniki during celebrating the Day of paratroopers in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, August 2, 2024. Russian Paratroopers' Forces celebrate the 94th anniversary of the establishment of Russia's airborne forces. Elijah the Prophet is considered the heavenly patron of the Airborne Forces. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





People steer their stand-up paddle (SUP) boards along Moyka River during annual costumed 'Fontanka' SUP-boards festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, August 3, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





People steer their stand-up paddle (SUP) boards along Moyka River during annual costumed 'Fontanka' SUP-boards festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, August 3, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Watermelons are seen at the start of the watermelon season in a fountain in the center of the GUM, Moscow's largest luxury goods store at Red Square, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





A man carries a woman during a heavy rain in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, August 5, 2024. (Photo by Pavel Bednyakov/AP Photo)





Local residents receive humanitarian aid outside the town of Sudzha on August 8, 2024. Ukraine's incursion into Russia, which entered a third day on August 8, 2024, appears to be an unprecedented assault which experts say could aim to draw Russian resources away from other areas or to undermine morale. Russia has given only scarce updates as it seeks to strike a balance between denouncing the escalation and avoiding panic. (Photo by Anatoliy Zhdanov/Kommersant Photo via AFP Photo)





This handout photograph released by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry press service shows the Ministry's personnel assisting people who have been evacuated from the border settlements of the Kursk region, as they arrive at a railway station in Oryol on August 9, 2024. Russia's army said it was still fighting a Ukrainian incursion into its western Kursk border region, four days after Kyiv's forces stormed across the border in a surprise attack. (Photo by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry/AFP Photo)





A view of the column of Russian Army trucks damaged by shelling by he Ukrainian Armed Forces on the highway in the Sudzhansky district, Kursk region of Russia, Friday, August 9, 2024. (Photo by Anatoliy Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House via AP Photo)





In this photo released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Friday, August 9, 2024, residents from the Kursk region arrive in railway station in Tula were they were met by employees of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, volunteers, psychologists and medical workers. (Photo by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP Photo)





The Aurora Borealis, also known as the "Northern Lights", illuminate the sky as people gather to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower near the village of Borodinka in the Omsk region, Russia on August 13, 2024. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American dual citizen, speaks with her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, at a court hearing in Yekaterinburg, Russia on August 15, 2024. A Russian court found her guilty of treason and sentenced her to 12 years in prison over a $50 donation to a Ukrainian charity. (Photo by Dmitry Chasovitin/Reuters)





People dance during a round dance flashmob at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, August 15, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





People dance during a round dance flashmob at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, August 15, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A damaged monument to Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin stands in a central square in Sudzha, Kursk region, Russia, Friday, August 16, 2024. This image was approved by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry before publication. (AP Photo/Stringer)





A view of the cemetery where the graves of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Russia-Ukraine war are located as daily life continues in shadow of war in Kursk, Russia on August 18, 2024. (Photo by Vladimir Aleksandrov/Anadolu via Getty Images)





The supermoon rises over a gilded bronze sculpture of a two-headed eagle, Russia's state emblem, installed atop the Telegraph Tower of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, August 19, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





The supermoon is seen over the Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, August 20, 2024, with an advertising billboard displaying a Russian soldier, participants of the military operation in Ukraine, in the foreground. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, accompanied by North Ossetia-Alania Head Sergei Menyailo, left, and North Caucasian Federal District Envoy Yury Chaika, right, tours the former Beslan School No 1, on August 20, 2024 in Beslan, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia. The school is the site of the deadliest school shooting in history ending in the death of 334 people. (Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)