Russian soldiers write home while serving on the Eastern Front during World War I, circa 1915. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Members of a cheerleading team warm- up during the Russian Cheerleading Championship of students in Moscow on November 20, 2016. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)

Russian supermodel Irina Shayk shares a snap from an “island summer nite (sic)” in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by irinashayk/Instagram)

A man and a woman take a selfie on Russian Navy Day in St Petersburg, Russia on July 26, 2020. (Photo by Roman Pimenov/TASS)

Russian model Irina Shayk early May 2023 snapped a selfie before she broke “all the rules” at Met Gala. (Photo by irinashayk/Instagram)

Rougine, a 19-year-old female Arab fighter among the Syrian Democratic Forces, made up of US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters, stands in fatigues embracing another colleague near the village of al-Torshan, 20 km on the outskirts of Raqa on February 6, 2017. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)

People enjoy carnival while shouting slogans of female empowerment and anti harrassment in Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 28, 2018. The carnival is marked by a lot of fun, but also has space to talk about more serious things – without losing the good mood. Parading for the first time in São Paulo, the Vaca Profana block proposed a reflection on sieges and machismo. (Photo by Cris Faga/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)