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)
A Ukrainian serviceman loads a robotic minelaying ground platform with land mines during military training in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on August 31, 2024. (Andriy Andriyenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The main gun of Chinese guided-missile destroyer Nanchang attacks a target during a China-Russia military drill on October 15, 2021, in Russian waters. (Sun Zifa/China News Service via Getty Images)
Armed Taliban security personnel sit atop an armored vehicle as they ride along a street in Khash district, Badakhshan province, on September 1, 2024. (Omer Abrar/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian emergency service workers extinguish a fire after a Russian bombing in the town of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on September 4, 2024. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)