In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Vladimir Putin enters a hall to meet with graduates of higher military educational institutions at the Kremlin on June 23, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov via Getty Images)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pose for a picture with European leaders following a meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)
A US Marine Corps VXE30 Stalker unmanned aerial system is staged during a maritime domain awareness training exercise in southern Finland on July 31, 2025. (DVIDS)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Russian armament exhibition Expo Arms-2011 September 9 2011 in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil, Russia. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)
Then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (C), Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller (R) and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (L) at the gas compressor station 'Portovaya' outside Vyborg, September 6, 2011. (ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images)
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd R) and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (R) at Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey on March 9, 2016. (Ahmet Izgi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on November 9, 2014 in Beijing, China. (How Hwee Young - Pool/Getty Images)
Syrian opposition members inspect the site of a suspected chlorine gas attack by Assad regime forces in Jobar region of Damascus, Syria on November 13, 2014. (Lokman Sair/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
US Secretary of States John Kerry (R) beside of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) after the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich on February 12, 2016. (CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with US Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 15, 2015. (SERGEI KARPUKHIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Russia's president Vladimir Putin give a press conference in Istanbul on December 3, 2012. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)