A soldier fires a rocket gun as Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region, where the country's most intense clashes occur, attend intensive combat training by using both domestic and foreign weapons amid Russia-Ukraine war in Donetsk, Ukraine on May 08, 2023. Infantry is always prepared in a conflict where heavy weaponry like aircraft, helicopters, tanks and other heavy armored vehicles, artillery systems, and mortars are widely deployed on frontline. Combat readiness and experience training of the 57th Brigade of the Ukrainian army continues in Donetsk. (Photo by Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Students hold their weapons before the swearing in ceremony for the military students, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, October 25, 2017. The Romanian Army is proudly celebrating their Army Day and marking 100-years since the landmark battle of Marasesti, a key World War I battle in 1917 when Romanian and Russian soldiers defeated German troops, halting a German offensive. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

An undated archive picture shows a dog pulling a Belgian machine gun at an unknown location in northern France. A Viscount in the Armoured Cavalry Branch of the French Army left behind a collection of hundreds of glass plates taken during World War One (WWI) that have never before been published. The images, by an unknown photographer, show the daily life of soldiers in the trenches, destruction of towns and military leaders. The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI. (Photo by Collection Odette Carrez/Reuters)

“Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the “Key to England” due to its defensive significance throughout history. It is the largest castle in England.

The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey directed the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, from his headquarters in the cliff tunnels”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The Repeater Station in the subterranean tunnels underneath Dover Castle, which has been restored by English Heritage for a public exhibition on June 3, 2011 in Dover, England. The evacuation of allied soldiers from Dunkirk was masterminded and co-ordinated from the secret command and control centre in the tunnels deep below the castle. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

General view of the monument to memory of soldiers who liberated the city of Knin – in Knin, Croatia on November 10, 2014. Across the former Yugoslavia stand giant monuments to a state that no longer exists, once visited and celebrated during public holidays such as Republic Day on November 29, marking the creation of socialist Yugoslavia. Many are now neglected or ignored, aging symbols of a joint state forged during World War Two but torn apart by nationalism half a century later. Republic Day is no longer marked in any of the seven independent states that emerged from its ashes. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

Performers wearing 19th century French military uniforms fire their weapons as they attack Allied forces during a reenactment of the Battle of the Nations, in a field in the village of Markkleeberg near Leipzig October 20, 2013. The east German city of Leipzig commemorated the 200th anniversary of the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars on Sunday by reenacting the Battle of the Nations, with 6,000 military-historic association enthusiasts from all over Europe. The decisive encounter in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed, took place from October 17-19, 1813, just outside of Leipzig. At the height of the hostilities Napoleon fielded more than 200,000 men against an Allied force of some 360,000 soldiers which included troops from Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Members of a historical re-enactment group dressed as U.S. and Soviet Army soldiers take part in Elbe Day celebrations, in eastern German city of Torgau at the river Elbe, April 25, 2015. Elbe Day commemorates the encounter of the Allies 70 years ago, on the 25th of April 1945 when American and Soviet army units joined together on the destroyed bridge over the river Elbe. The photograph of the meaningful handshake made its way around the world and became a symbol of the near end of World War II in Europe. (Photo by Stefanie Loos/Reuters)

The brutalist war memorials found throughout the former Yugoslavia were weird enough when they were built in the 1960s and 70s. Today, separated by the end of an architectural movement and the disintegration of the country, they seem almost alien. Belgian photographer Jan Kempenaers treats them purely as artistic objects in his book, “Spomenik”, named for the Serb-Croat word for monument. Known for photographing geographical oddities, Kempenaers was captivated by the spomenik after seeing them in an art encyclopedia. After hearing that many had been destroyed or abandoned, he set out to record what was left. (Photo by Jan Kempenaers)