World War Two veteran Abla Begaliyev, 91, is seen in an undated handout picture (L), poses for a picture in Arashan (Top R) and at home in Kyrgyzstan April 14, 2015. Begaliyev served in the border guard cavalry from February 1942 until April 1947. Originally from Kyrgyzstan, he fought on the Ukrainian front and relocated to the border with Afghanistan at the end of World War Two. As the world marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Reuters photographers the length and breadth of the former Soviet republics (CCCP) captured portraits of Red Army veterans, mostly now in their 80s and 90s, today and through archive pictures at the time. More than 20 million Soviet citizens were killed in the war. (Photo by Vladimir Pirogov/Reuters/Family handout (L))

Russian servicemen look on as a Mi-24 helicopter fly overhead during the Open Water competition for pontoon bridge units, as part of the International Army Games 2018, outside Murom, Russia August 3, 2018. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

When Colin Garratt went to photograph the traditional sentinels of the British countryside, he found they ranged from the dapper to the downright sinister. “They are not from the anaesthetised world of the craft fair”, says Colin Garratt, “but are the direct descendants of the ancient spectres which have haunted the landscape for centuries”. The Scarecrow Exhibition is at Geddes Gallery, London, from 25 to 30 March. (Photo by Colin Garratt)

MiG-15 jet fighters are pictured in Kucova Air Base in Kucova, Albania on October 3, 2018. Albania retired its 224 Soviet- and Chinese-made MiGs in 2005, and since 2009 NATO neighbors Italy and Greece monitor its airspace. That led to economic decline in and around Kucova, which was called “Stalin City” during the era of Communist rule. (Photo by Florion Goga/Reuters)

Ultra-Orthodox Jews inspect etrogs, or citrons, inside a shop in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood in Jerusalem, 07 October 2014, as they look to purchase an unblemished fruit ahead of the holiday of Sukkot. (Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

“Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn't resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union”. – Yahoo News. Photo: Hungary, MAV 424 Steam Train. (Photo by Rebecca Bathory)

Participants dressed as characters such as elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs from the J.R.R. Tolkien's novel “The Hobbit” re-enact the “Battle of Five Armies” in a forest near the town of Doksy, Czech Republic, June 4, 2016. Several hundred people arrived in the forest to re-enact the famous battle from Tolkien's novel that was published for the first time in 1937. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)