Natalia, 51, a mother of three, serving as a combat medic in the 24th Mechanized Brigade takes part in a field training exercise in an undisclosed location in the eastern region of Ukraine, on March 18, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/AFP Photo)

Russian army servicewomen march during the Victory Day military parade at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, May 9, 2024, marking the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

For many of us, simply bending over to touch our toes can be a difficult. But it's not a problem for the world's bendiest woman Julia Günthel aka Zlata (27). Russian-born Zlata can twist herself like a snake into the most extreme poses imaginable – and has broken numerous world records for her flexibility. The former gymnast, who is 5ft 8in, is so flexible she can cram herself into a 50cm squared box. Photo: Russian-born Zlata is pictured in Fifties style glam while still managing to bend herself in half. (Photo by Barcroft Media)

Russian support personnel work to help get Expedition 29 crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed with Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum, and Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa on November 22, 2011 outside of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. NASA Astronaut Fossum, Russian Cosmonaut Volkov and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Astronaut Furukawa are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station (ISS) where they served as members of the Expedition 28 and 29 crews. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

Children carrying guns and flags or wearing Soviet-style uniforms have become a common sight at Victory Day parades and other events in Russian-controlled Crimea. Russian and Ukrainian human rights activists have warned that such displays point to a growing trend of promoting Russian patriotism among kids on the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Here: A young Crimean girl wears military-type clothes during a Victory Day celebration in Sevastopol on May 9, 2018. (Photo by Oleksandra Surgan/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

A woman holds up an umbrella and license plates, one that reads “love”, during violent protests between riot police and demonstrators in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on October 1, 2019. The city observes the National Day holiday to mark the 70th anniversary of communist China's founding Strife-torn Hong Kong on October 1 marked the 70th anniversary of communist China's founding with defiant “Day of Grief” protests and fresh clashes with police as pro-democracy activists ignored a ban and took to the streets across the city. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

An employe of Russian Space Training Center hangs out to dry space suits of Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins, and Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, right, after their undergoing training near in Noginsk, 60 km (38 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The training was intended to simulate the capsule landing on water. Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, and NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins are being trained for a future mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Pedestrians walk past a truck with a giant Soviet Red Army hat seen on it, an installation created by Russian artist Vasily Slonov, during the annual “Winter Virage” motor sports festival dedicated to the Defender of the Fatherland Day on the embankment of the Yenisei River in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, February 23, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)