Photographs of Ukrainians hiding in subway tunnels from Russian attacks reminded Europe of the civilian defence shelter plans lying at the bottom of the closet. In the majority of the capitals of the Old Continent after the end of the Cold War, an illusory sense of safety prevailed, and the issue of providing protection for civilians from air strikes went to the background. However, there are countries that have managed to avoid the mistakes of Western neighbours. Paradoxically, they were countries that were, or were, until late outside NATO and had to take care of their own safety.
Civil protection protection or for the public is simply a general concept, as specialists separate between respective types of places where you can hide in the event of an air strike. In Poland, only a protective building with a closed, airtight structure is simply a shelter. Objects that do not warrant hermetency are referred to as hiding places. Each country has its own categorization of facilities where residents can shelter in the event of a threat. Unfortunately, most countries in Europe have besides few. Although Russia's invasion of Crimea and its annexation and Moscow's provocation of armed conflict in the east of Ukraine in 2014 signalled that the time of peace on the Old Continent was over, this did not become an impulse to strengthen civilian protection infrastructure against air strikes. 8 years later, erstwhile a full-scale war occurred in Ukraine, it turned out that the best shelters were equipped with those countries of Europe that were outside NATO and themselves cared about their security.
Preventing Swedes and Finns
One of them was Sweden, in which civilian defence has been a key component of the defence strategy for decades. So the Swedes invested a lot in protective structures. They besides managed to avoid any of the mistakes of another countries, where an illusory sense of safety prevailed after the end of the Cold War. Although there was an thought in 2010 to quit entirely the maintenance of civilian defence shelters, fortunately it was not implemented for the Swedes. erstwhile the threat of war again arose 4 years later, the civilian defence chief issued a advice to resume the construction of shelters after it was discontinued in 2002. Sweden present has something to boast about compared to most European countries. It has 64–65 1000 shelters or protective structures, where there is area for about 7 million people. Thus, 66% of its 10.6 million inhabitants can take refuge.
Finland is in an even better position, which, having been Russia's neighbour, besides retained effective civilian defence after the Cold War ended. In 2022 it had about 50.5 1000 protective structures, which could accommodate a full of 4.8 million people, or as much as 86% of about 5.6 million inhabitants of the country. There are about 5.5 1000 shelters in Helsinki alone, with 900 1000 seats (while the Finnish capital has 658,000 inhabitants!). The authorities, erstwhile planning shelters, took into account that many commuters or schools in Helsinki.
Most Finnish shelters are reinforced concrete structures under office and residential buildings, and about 10% of them are carved in rock. The Finnish Ministry of Interior maintains a capacity of 3.6 million people, alleged hard shelters, to last a atomic charge of 100 kt. These buildings are in cities and another densely populated areas of confederate Finland, where 2 thirds of the country's population lives. However, most shelters are smaller private facilities. The Finns are obliged to prepare them for individual houses or groups of buildings on the same plot. The criterion is the surface area — the shelter must be in each building or group of buildings with a useful area of 1200 m2 or more.
In NATO, which is safe?
Norway is no longer as good with access to shelters as its neighbours. In a country that has been owned by NATO for over 75 years, there are over 20,000 shelters. They can accommodate 2.5–2.6 million people, which is little than half the current population of Norway with over 5.5 million inhabitants. This is somewhat the consequence of the decisions of the state authorities, which, believing that after the end of the Cold War the threat of military attack had passed, decided in 1998 to retreat the request to equip all fresh public buildings with shelters for the population. For over 20 years, no fresh shelter has been built in Norway. Therefore, the usage of fresh spaces for emergency shelters, including railway tunnels and metro networks in Oslo, as well as basements and underground garages, has been taken into account for any time in view of the expanding threat of war. And a fewer days ago, the Norwegian Ministry of Public safety decided to reconstruct the work to build shelters. The fresh regulations are intended to cover buildings with an area exceeding 1 000 m.2.
W Denmark continues to count
Although the Danes attached importance to providing the people with safe shelter during the Cold War, the case was neglected after it was concluded. Although the National Emergency Management Agency reported in 2022 that there was area for about 4.7 million people in shelters and safe rooms, or 81% of the 5.8 million residents of the country (with public shelters being able to accommodate about 950 000 people), it did not give the number of facilities. The information provided raised doubts, as it was based on data from the latest safety infrastructure review carried out in Denmark in... 2002. Concerns about their credibility were confirmed during a fresh review, the results of which were made public in 2024. It turned out that the shelter sites were for only 3.68 million people, or 61% of about 6 million people present. But this is not the end of confusion. It is likely that officials preparing safety building reports in their municipalities did not personally check the actual situation of many of them.
In addition to political decisions, there is yet another crucial reason to preserve so many protection structures in the Scandinavian Peninsula after the Cold War. Well, the applicable Scandinavians designed most of the large public shelters as multifunctional facilities. During the area they are utilized as garages, school rooms, conferences or cinemas, sports halls, bowling alleys, ice rinks, warehouses, cold stores, shooting ranges, and even exile centers. At the same time, the rules require users to prepare these structures for shelter function within 48 to 72 hours.
Although there are large reserves of protective structures in Scandinavia, checks revealed many irregularities in their maintenance. For almost 3 decades after the Cold War, the peaceful dividend of parts of them changed destiny, any sold and even stripped. The surviving ones were frequently degraded. For this reason, the cognition of civilian protection personnel and construction companies about shelter maintenance is besides slow. The authorities so decided that the funds would be utilized not only for the renovation of shelters but besides for the training of emergency services. Another problem is the unparalleled availability to shelters. Most of them are located in cities, in highly urban areas, and in agrarian areas there are far fewer. There are even differences between cities as to the percent of residents who have shelter provided. For example, it is 76% for Oslo, but for Trondheim it is 50%.
Kiev residents hiding in a shelter during the air alarm, Kiev, November 2024.
Europe goes down to the cellars
As far as shelters are concerned, the European mogul is maintaining the political neutrality of Switzerland. It has about 360,000 shelters located in institutions and hospitals, but the overwhelming majority is placed in private homes. In 1963, it was a work to have a shelter in all fresh residential building. At the same time, 5,000 public shelters were created. In the early 21st century, however, provisions on the work to build shelters in fresh buildings were relaxed in Switzerland. They no longer gotta have single-family houses and smaller multi-family houses having little than 38 chambers. The authorities besides began to like the construction of public shelters alternatively of private shelters, especially those tiny ones, with up to 7 people, of which there are about 100,000. The Swiss strategy provides shelter for almost all residents of the country, although as in Scandinavia the problem is regional differences in the number of places compared to the number of inhabitants.
Against the background of Scandinavia and Switzerland, the most populous country of the continent – Germany – is very poor. After the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian War in 2022, it turned out that there were only 579 public shelters in the country that could accommodate about 480,000 people. This represents just over 0.5% in the 84-million population. In addition, many of them were built during planet War II and their method condition is not the best.
The current situation is simply a consequence of the 2007 decision erstwhile Germany gave up the usage of much of the infrastructure of the shelters from the Cold War. In Berlin it was assumed that the hazard of a large-scale military conflict in the future was minimal in Europe. However, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, our western neighbors began to look for space that could be converted into temporary shelters. This function is to be played by underground parking lots and metro stations. The authorities besides encourage citizens to make makeshift shelters in their own basements. Nor will it be a consolation for the Germans that the situation in neighbouring France, where the issue of shelters was not given much importance even during the Cold War, is even worse.
Poland against this background is not a arrogant exception. The inventory of infrastructure in which civilians can defend themselves during air strikes was carried out from October 2022 to February 2023. It shows that there are only about 2,000 shelters in Poland where more than 300 1000 people can hide. Another over 1.1 million will be located in hiding places, of which there are about 9,000. Most – 224 1000 – are alleged temporary hiding places (the 3 categories are distinguished), which may include cellars, garages or tunnels. There would be area for up to 47 million people, but, unfortunately, they do not offer a advanced level of protection. However, after the entry into force of the fresh civilian Protection and Defence Act on 1 January, there will be another verification of the safety infrastructure. The availability of shelters in Poland is to improve both the bill and the revised construction regulations. From 1 January 2026 underground floors of fresh buildings must be designed so that they can be utilized as shelters. This applies to both private and public facilities. Local authorities will be liable for the construction of public shelters, which will receive financial support from the State.
It started with the blimps.
W Europe's past of the construction of anti-aircraft shelters dates back to the time of planet War I, erstwhile the first raids distant from the front, including London, were conducted utilizing airships and bombers. The large construction of shelters began on the continent in the mid-1930s erstwhile a fresh large armed conflict appeared. The first Germans began to build them, and another countries followed.
One of them was Greece, where underground shelters had been built since 1936 according to strict guidelines, which defined, among others, the thickness of walls, the kind of rooms that should be in them, or the materials for their execution. This program ended in 1956. In the highest period in Greece there were over 5,000 shelters. In time, most stopped being utilized and maintained. The Greek authorities are now checking whether the method condition of the surviving facilities allows them to be restored.
Already before planet War II, politicians saw the threat of air strikes that could terrorize citizens and break their determination to fight. That is why civilian defense, a structure designed to prepare society for action in the event of war, has begun in many countries. It has been active in training civilians in extinguishing incendiary bombs as well as in instructing the public to prepare for emergency situations.
At present, experts inform that, among the consequences of ending the Cold War, Europeans are losing their intellectual condition and their resilience to war conditions. The neglected shelter infrastructure surely does not strengthen the already tarnished morale of citizens.
