A SELF-CONFESSED cannibalistic Satanist, convicted of killing and devouring two children, has been hailed a hero by Putin.
Nikolay Ogolobyak, 33, who dismembered teenagers, was freed by the warped dictator after the convict fought in his war in Ukraine.
He was the oldest among a sect of Satanists in Yaroslavl consisting of six other members.
The Satanists killed three girls and one boy aged between 16 and 17 after engaging in animal sacrifices and digging up human graves.
Each of the teenagers were drugged and stabbed 666 times with daggers, dismembered and then cooked on a bonfire in a revolting Satanist ritual conducted over two nights.
The criminals including Ogolobyak recited a Satanist text found on the Internet.
read more world news
Their limbs, hearts, scalps, breasts and genitals were cut off and were recovered in a pit along with the body of a small rodent crucified on an upside-down cross.
Anna Gorokhova, 16, Olga Pukhova, 15, Vavara Kuzmina, 16 and Andrei Sorokin, 16, went missing in June 2008 and their bodies were only found in the middle of August.
They were declared victims of “brutal ritualist child murders” by a Russian court after a mammoth two year criminal investigation.
The cult told the police the Devil would protect them as they "made lots of sacrifices to him".
Most read in The Sun
The prosecutors said the killers had posed with their victims' bodies for photographs and one allegedly "bathed" in the blood of victims.
Ogolobyak was found guilty of murdering two people.
He was also convicted of desecration of the bodies and burial places of the dead.
He was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony.
Given the time in custody, he was due to be released in 2028 at the age of 39.
But he signed up for Putin’s war in Ukraine - knowing if he served six months and avoided death, he would be a free man.
A convict can only be pardoned and released with Putin’s personal signature.
The dictator has freed thousands of murderers and rapists but Ogolobyak is the first known Satanist cannibal killer to be pardoned.
Ogolobyak was injured in the war, but is now free, his father has admitted.
The satanist returned home on November 2 with a "severe wound".
His father said: “He served there for six months in Storm Z….
“After being wounded [he is] disabled.
“He can walk, but the wound was serious…. he is recovering.
“It is unlikely that they will take him to the [war] again."
The other Satanists were under 18 and given lesser sentences.
Konstantin Baranov and Alexander Voronov were locked up for ten years in a general regime colony, Alexey Solovyov and Alexey Chistyakov for nine years, and Ksenia Kovalyova for eight years.
Sergei Karpenko was sentenced to two years in a penal colony and Anton Makovkin was diagnosed with schizophrenia and prescribed compulsory psychiatric treatment.
Satanist Ogolobyak - who received the longest jail term - is now living with his mother.
Details of his war service and wounding have not been disclosed.
The release of rapists and murderers after fighting for Putin is causing rising alarm in regions across Russia.
Already, more than 30 people have been killed by pardoned returnee convicts freed from jail to fight in the war.
The warmonger previously released a killer who used meatgrinder to dispose of body of strangled lover because he fought in Ukraine.
Another sadistic killer who raped and tortured ex-girlfriend before stabbing her 111 times was freed earlier this year.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Of the convicts who died, Putin said: “They gave their lives for their Motherland and atoned for their guilt."
Russian officials have hailed the convict army - many who fought for the Wagner mercenary force - as heroes.