Russia is building air-defense towers that some observers liken to the "flak towers" used by Nazi Germany. The air-defense towers are not the first decades-old weapon to be used during the war in Ukraine. In 1940, Hitler demanded flak towers after British bombers conducted a small raid on Berlin. Yet there isn't that much resemblance between German flak towers and Russia's new air-defense structures, according to Edward Westermann, author of "Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses 1941-1945." Most of the German flak towers were destroyed after 1945, though a few remain today as tourist attractions — or because they're simply too difficult to blow up.

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